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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Public Services of John Quincy
+Adams, by William H. Seward
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams
+       Sixth President of the Unied States
+
+Author: William H. Seward
+
+Release Date: April 18, 2006 [EBook #18196]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Don Kostuch
+
+
+
+
+
+
+L I F E
+AND
+PUBLIC SERVICES
+of
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+WITH
+THE EULOGY
+DELIVERED BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW YORK.
+
+
+BY WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
+
+
+[Transcriber's Notes:]
+This text is an accurate reproduction of the original book with the
+following exceptions. Obvious misspellings and typos have been corrected
+but contemporary usage is unchanged, e.g. "centre". Sentences spanning
+pages have been joined to facilitate searches and analysis.
+
+I encourage you to forgive the verbose style that suggests authors were
+paid by the word. The gems of character description and contemporary
+viewpoints are worth the effort.
+
+The book supports the observation "The news never changes, just the
+names." I am  encouraged that the tone of politics is not much different
+today than it was at Adams' time. Things are no worse. In spite of
+continual bickering, a few persons with good will, careful planning, hard
+work and a thick skin can achieve wonderful results.
+
+The following glossary contains unfamiliar (to me) terms.
+
+
+abjuration
+  Renounce under oath; forswear. Recant solemnly; repudiate. Give up.
+  Abstain from.
+
+abstemious
+  Eating and drinking in moderation. Sparingly used. Restricted to bare
+  necessities.
+
+Aceldama
+  A place with dreadful associations.
+
+animadversion
+  Strong criticism.
+
+approbate
+  Sanction officially; authorize.
+
+arbitrament
+  Arbitrating; arbitration. Judgment of an arbitrator or arbiter.
+
+assiduity
+  Persistent application or diligence; unflagging effort. Constant
+  personal attention.
+
+(a)thymy
+  (Not) abounding with thyme; fragrant.
+
+barouche
+  Four-wheeled carriage with a collapsible top, two double seats inside
+  opposite each other, and a box seat outside in front for the driver.
+
+barque
+  Sailing ship with three to five square-rigged  masts, except the after
+  mast, which is fore-and-aft rigged. Small vessel propelled by oars or
+  sails.
+
+benison
+  Blessing; a benediction.
+
+cesural
+  Pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm
+  rather than by metrics. Pause in conversation.
+
+chaplet
+  Wreath or garland for the head.
+
+Circean (Circe)
+  A Greek goddess who turned Odysseus's men temporarily into swine but
+  later gave him directions for their journey home.
+
+coeval
+  Originating or existing during the same period; lasting through the same
+  era. One of the same era or period; a contemporary.
+
+condign
+  Deserved; adequate.
+
+contemned
+  Viewed with contempt; despised.
+
+contumelies
+  Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance. Insolent or arrogant
+  remarks or acts.
+
+cortege
+  Train of attendants of a distinguished person; a retinue. Ceremonial
+  procession. Funeral procession.
+
+demurrage
+  Detention of a cargo conveyance during loading or unloading beyond the
+  scheduled time of departure. Compensation paid for such detention.
+
+deputed
+  Appoint or authorize as a representative. Assign (authority or duties)
+  to another; delegate.
+
+descant
+  Ornamental melody or counterpoint sung or played above a theme. Highest
+  part sung in part music. Discussion or discourse on a theme.
+
+descried
+  Catch sight of (something difficult to discern). Discover by careful
+  observation or scrutiny; detect:
+
+didactic
+  Intended to instruct. Morally instructive.
+
+dilatory
+  Intended to delay. Tending to postpone or delay.
+
+discomfited
+  Make uneasy or perplexed; disconcert. Thwart plans; frustrate.
+
+disquisitions
+  Formal discourse, often in writing.
+
+doit
+  Dutch coin, worth about half a farthing. A thing of small value.
+
+effulgence
+  Brilliant radiance.
+
+elegiac
+  Mourning for that which is irrecoverably past.
+
+emoluments
+  Payment for an office or employment; compensation.
+
+encomiums
+  Warm, glowing praise. Formal expression of praise; a tribute.
+
+enervate
+  Weaken or destroy strength or vitality.
+
+ephemeral
+  Lasting for a brief time. Living or lasting only for a day, as some
+  plants or insects.
+
+Episcopal
+  Church governed by a bishop.
+
+epithet
+  Term to characterize a person or thing or as a descriptive substitute
+  for the name or title of a person. Abusive or contemptuous word or
+  phrase.
+
+erudition
+  Deep, extensive learning.
+
+escutcheon
+  Shield-shaped emblem bearing a coat of arms. Plate inscribed with a
+  ship's name.
+
+eternize
+  Make eternal. Protract for an indefinite period. Make perpetually
+  famous; immortalize.
+
+eulogium
+  Formal eulogy.
+
+evanescent
+  Vanishing or likely to vanish like vapor.
+
+execration
+  The act of cursing. A curse. Something cursed or loathed.
+
+exigency
+  Requiring much effort or immediate action. Pressing or urgent situation.
+
+extirpate
+  Pull up by the roots. Destroy totally; exterminate. Remove by surgery.
+
+fain
+  Happily; gladly.
+
+garniture
+  Garnish; embellishment.
+
+gratulation
+  To congratulate.
+
+green withes
+  Cords or bowstrings used to bind Samson; Judges 16:8.
+
+habiliments
+  Special dress or garb associated with an occasion or office.
+
+hecatomb
+  Large-scale sacrifice; sacrifice to the ancient Greek and Roman gods of
+  100 oxen.
+
+importunity
+  Importunate request; an insistent or pressing demand.
+
+indefeasible
+  Cannot be annulled or made void.
+
+ineffably
+  Incapable of being expressed; indescribable, unutterable, unspeakable,
+  taboo.
+
+ingenuously
+  Lacking in cunning, guile, or worldliness; artless. Openly
+  straightforward or frank; candid.
+
+importunate
+  Troublesomely urgent or persistent in requesting.
+
+intendant
+  Administrative official serving a French, Spanish, or Portuguese
+  monarch.
+
+Jacobin
+  Radical or extreme leftist. Radical republican during the French
+  Revolution.
+
+meed
+  Fitting recompense. Merited gift or wage.
+
+mensuration
+  Process of measuring. Measurement of geometric quantities.
+
+mole
+  Massive stone wall constructed in the sea as a breakwater to protect an
+  anchorage or a harbor. Anchorage or harbor enclosed by a mole.
+
+munificence
+  Liberal in giving; generous. Showing great generosity.
+
+Nestor
+  Hero celebrated as an elderly and wise counselor to the Greeks at Troy
+
+obsequies
+  Funeral rites or ceremonies.
+
+octavo
+  Page size, from 5 by 8 inches to 6 by 9-1/2 inches, of a book composed
+  of printer's sheets folded into eight leaves. A book composed of octavo
+  pages.
+
+odium
+  Strong dislike, contempt, or aversion. State of disgrace resulting from
+  hateful or detestable conduct.
+
+panegyric
+  Formal public compliment. Elaborate praise.
+
+parsimony
+  Unusual or excessive frugality; extreme economy or stinginess.
+
+patronymic
+  Derived from the name of one's father or a paternal ancestor.
+
+pertinacity
+  Persistent determination.
+
+Plenipotentiary
+  Diplomatic agent, such as an ambassador, fully authorized to represent
+  his government.
+
+Presbyterian
+  Church governed by elected elders.
+
+probity
+  Complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness.
+
+proconsular
+  Provincial governor of consular rank in the Roman Empire.
+
+pusillanimity
+  Cowardice.
+
+recusant
+  One of the Roman Catholics in England who incurred legal and social
+  penalties in the 16th century and afterward for refusing to attend
+  services of the Church of England. Dissenter; a nonconformist.
+
+Sabine (River)
+  River flowing into the Gulf of Mexico just East of Houston, Texas.
+
+sagacity
+  Discerning, sound in judgment, farsighted; wisdom.
+
+Silesia
+  Region of central Europe in southwest Poland and northern Czech
+  Republic.
+
+sinecure
+  Position or office that requires little work but provides a salary.
+
+spoliations
+  Despoiling or plundering. Seizure of neutral vessels at sea by a
+  belligerent power in time of war.
+
+stivers
+  Nickel coin used in the Netherlands and worth 1/20 of a guilder (about
+  0.4 Euros in 2006). Something of small value.
+
+TETE D'ARMEE
+  Head of the Army.
+
+thrall   (thraldom)
+  Held in bondage; servitude; intellectually or morally enslaved.
+
+tittle
+  Small diacritic mark, such as an accent, vowel mark, or dot over an i.
+  Tiniest bit; an iota.
+
+umbrage
+  Offense; resentment. Something that affords shade or shade itself.
+  Vague indication; hint.
+
+unction
+  Anointing as part of a religious, ceremonial, or healing ritual.
+  Ointment or oil. Something that serves to soothe; a balm.  Affected or
+  exaggerated earnestness, especially in choice and use of language.
+
+Unitarian
+  Believes in the oneness of God as opposed to the Trinity. Historic
+  Unitarians believed in the moral authority, but not the deity, of Jesus.
+  Free thinkers and dissenters, evolving their beliefs by rationalism and
+  humanism.
+
+usurpation
+  Usurping, especially the wrongful seizure of royal sovereignty. Wrongful
+  seizure or exercise of authority. Encroachment.
+
+vicissitudes
+  Change or variation.
+
+vituperation
+  Abusive censure. Sustained, harshly abusive language.
+
+votaries
+  Persons bound by vows to live a life of religious worship or service.
+  Devout adherents of a cult or religion. Persons fervently devoted to a
+  leader or ideal; faithful followers. Persons filled with enthusiasm, as
+  for a pursuit or hobby; enthusiasts.
+
+[End of Transcriber's notes]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Portrait of John Quincy Adams.]
+
+Engraved from a Painting by A.B. Durand.
+
+John Quincy Adams
+
+
+
+L I F E
+AND
+PUBLIC SERVICES
+of
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
+SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+WITH
+THE EULOGY
+DELIVERED BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW YORK.
+
+
+BY WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
+
+
+"THIS IS THE END OF EARTH--I AM CONTENT."
+
+
+
+
+AUBURN:
+DERBY, MILLER AND COMPANY.
+1849.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by
+                DERBY, MILLER & COMPANY,
+In the Clerk's Office for the Northern District of New York.
+
+
+STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS B. SMITH,
+216 WILLIAM: STREET, N.Y.
+
+
+TO THE
+
+FRIENDS OF EQUAL LIBERTY
+
+AND HUMAN RIGHTS
+
+THROUGHOUT THE WORLD,
+
+This Volume
+
+IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
+
+ADVERTISEMENT.
+
+The Publishers apologize for the delay in issuing this volume, which was
+announced by them as in press, more than one year since, shortly after the
+decease of its illustrious subject. Gov. Seward, in undertaking its
+preparation, was well aware of the engrossing attention which his
+professional duties required, but looked constantly for relaxation from
+his multiplied business engagements, in the hope that he might be able to
+complete the work commenced by him. It however became necessary for its
+timely completion, to obtain the literary assistance of an able writer,
+who has, under his auspices, completed the work. The Publishers
+confidently believe, that it will in all respects, be received as a
+faithful and impartial history of the Life of the "Old Man Eloquent," and
+worthy a place in the library of every friend of liberty and humanity.
+  AUBURN, April, 1849.
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+
+The claims of this volume are humble. For more than half a century JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS had occupied a prominent position before the American people,
+and filled a large space in his country's history. His career was
+protracted to extreme old age. He outlived political enmity and party
+rancor. His purity of life--his elevated and patriotic principles of
+action--his love of country, and devotion to its interests--his advocacy
+of human freedom, and the rights of man--brought all to honor and love
+him. Admiring legislators hung with rapture on the lips of "the Old Man
+Eloquent," and millions eagerly perused the sentiments he uttered, as they
+were scattered by the press in every town and hamlet of the Western
+Continent. At his decease, there was a general desire expressed for a
+history of his life and times. A work of this description was understood
+to be in preparation by his family. It was not probable, however, that
+this could appear under several years, and when published, would
+undoubtedly be placed, by its size and cost, beyond the reach of the great
+mass of readers. In view of these circumstances, there was an evident want
+of a volume of more limited compass--a book which would come within the
+means of the people generally,--and adapted not only for libraries, and
+the higher classes of society, but would find its way into the midst of
+those moving in the humbler walks of life. To supply this want, the
+present work has been prepared. The endeavor has been made to compress
+within a brief compass, the principal events of the life of Mr. Adams, and
+the scenes in which he participated; and to portray the leading traits of
+character which distinguished him from his contemporaries. It has been the
+aim to present such an aspect of the history and principles of this
+wonderful man, as shall do justice to his memory, and afford an example
+which the youth of America may profitably imitate in seeking for a model
+by which to shape their course through life. How far this end has been
+attained, an intelligent and candid public must determine.
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+The Ancestry, Birth, and Childhood of John Quincy Adams.
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+John Quincy Adams studies Law--His Practice--Engages in Public Life
+--Appointed Minister to the Hague.
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Mr. Adams transferred to Berlin--His Marriage--Literary Pursuits--
+Travels in Silesia--Negotiates Treaties with Sweden and Prussia--
+Recalled to the United States.
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Mr. Adams' Return to the United States--Elected to the Massachusetts
+Senate--Appointed U. S. Senator--Supports Mr. Jefferson--Professor of
+Rhetoric and Belles Lettres--Appointed Minister to Russia.
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Mr. Adams' arrival at St. Petersburg--His Letters to his Son on the Bible--
+His Religious Opinions--Russia offers Mediation between Great Britain
+and the United States--Proceeds to Ghent to negotiate for Peace--
+Visits Paris--Appointed Minister at St. James-Arrives in London.
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Mr. Adams appointed Secretary of State--Arrives in the United States--
+Public Dinners in New York and Boston--Takes up his Residence in
+Washington--Defends Gen. Jackson in the Florida Invasion--Recognition of
+South American Independence--Greek Revolution.
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Mr. Adams' nomination to the Presidency--Spirited Presidential
+Campaign--No choice by the People--Election goes to the House of
+Representatives--Mr. Adams elected President--His Inauguration--Forms his
+Cabinet.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Charges of Corruption against Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams--Mr. Adams enters
+upon his duties as President--Visit of La Fayette--Tour through the United
+Slates--Mr. Adams delivers him a Farewell Address--Departs from the
+United States.
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+John Adams and Thomas Jefferson--Their Correspondence--Their Death--Mr.
+Webster's Eulogy--John Q. Adams visits Quincy--His Speech at the Public
+School Dinner in Faneuil Hall.
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Mr. Adams' Administration--Refuses to remove political opposers from
+office--Urges the importance of Internal Improvements--Appoints
+Commissioners to the Congress of Panama--His policy toward the Indian
+Tribes--His Speech on breaking ground for the Chesapeake and Ohio
+Canal--Bitter opposition to his Administration--Fails of re-election to
+the Presidency--Retires from office.
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Mr. Adams' multiplied attainments--Visited by Southern Gentlemen--His
+Report on Weights and Measures--His Poetry--Erects a Monument to the
+memory of his Parents--Elected Member of Congress--Letter to the Bible
+Society--Delivers Eulogy on Death of ex-President Monroe.
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Mr. Adams takes his seat in Congress--His Position and Habits as a Member--
+His Independence of Party--His Eulogy on the Death of ex-President James
+Madison--His advocacy of the Right of Petition, and Opposition to Slavery--
+Insurrection in Texas--Mr. Adams makes known its ulterior object.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Mr. Adams presents Petitions for the Abolishment of Slavery--Opposition of
+Southern Members--Exciting Scenes in the House of Representatives--Marks
+of confidence in Mr. Adams.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Mr. Adams' firmness in discharge of duty--His exertions in behalf of the
+Amistad Slaves--His connection with the Smithsonian Bequest--Tour
+through Canada and New York--His reception at Buffalo--Visits Niagara
+Falls--Attends worship with the Tuscarora Indians--His reception at
+Rochester--at Auburn--at Albany--at Pittsfield--Visits Cincinnati--
+Assists in laying the Corner Stone of an Observatory.
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Mr. Adams' Last Appearance in Public at Boston--His Health--Lectures on his
+Journey to Washington--Remote Cause of his Decease--Struck with
+Paralysis--Leaves Quincy for Washington for the last time--His final
+Sickness in the House of Representatives--His Death--The Funeral at
+Washington--Removal of the Body to Quincy--Its Interment.
+
+EULOGY
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE ANCESTRY, BIRTH, AND CHILDHOOD, OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+The Puritan Pilgrims of the May-Flower landed on Plymouth Rock, and
+founded the Colony of Massachusetts, on the 21st day of December, 1620.
+
+HENRY ADAMS, the founder of the Adams family in America, fled from
+ecclesiastical oppression in England, and joined the Colony at a very
+early period, but at what precise time is not recorded. He erected his
+humble dwelling at a place within the present town of QUINCY, then known
+as MOUNT WOLLASTON, and is believed to have been an inhabitant when the
+first Christian Church was gathered there in 1630. On the organization of
+the town of Braintree, which comprised the place of his residence, he was
+elected Clerk of the Town. He died on the eighth day of October, 1646. His
+memory is preserved by a plain granite monument, erected in the
+burial-ground at Quincy, by JOHN ADAMS, President of the United States,
+and bearing this inscription:--
+
+                  In Memory
+                     of
+                 HENRY ADAMS,
+Who took his flight from the Dragon Persecution in Devonshire, in
+  England, and alighted with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston.
+   One of the sons returned to England, and after taking time
+     to explore the country, four removed to Medfield and
+       the neighboring towns; two to Chelmsford. One
+       only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand,
+        remained here, who was an original pro-
+         prietor in the Township of Braintree,
+           incorporated in the year 1639.
+
+This stone, and several others, have been placed in this yard, by a
+great-great-grandson, from a veneration of the piety, humility,
+simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance; frugality, industry, and
+perseverance of his ancestors, in hopes of recommending an imitation of
+their virtues to their posterity.
+
+
+Joseph Adams, the son of Henry Adams mentioned in the above inscription,
+died on the sixth of December, 1694, aged sixty-eight years. Joseph, the
+next in succession, died February 12th, 1736, at the age of eighty-four
+years. His son John Adams, was a Deacon of the Church at Quincy, and died
+May 25th, 1761, aged seventy years. This John Adams was the father of him
+who was destined to give not only undying fame to his ancient family, but
+a new and powerful impulse to the cause of Human Freedom throughout the
+world.
+
+JOHN ADAMS, son of John Adams and Susannah Boylston Adams, was born at
+Quincy on the nineteenth day of October (old style), 1735. He received the
+honors of Harvard University in 1755, and then, in pursuance of a good old
+New England custom, which made those who had enjoyed the benefits of a
+public education, in turn impart those benefits to the public, he was
+occupied for a time in teaching.
+
+It ought to encourage all young men in straitened circumstances, desirous
+of obtaining a profession and of rising to eminence, to know that John
+Adams, who became so illustrious by talents and achievement as to lend
+renown to the office of President of the United States, pursued the study
+of the law under the inconveniences resulting from his occupation as an
+instructor in a Grammar School.
+
+John Adams was an eminent and successful lawyer, but it was not the design
+of his existence that his talents should be wasted in the contentions of
+the courts.
+
+The British Parliament, as soon as the Colonies had attracted their
+notice, commenced a system of legislation known as the Colonial System,
+the object of which was to secure to the mother country a monopoly of
+their trade, and to prevent their rising to a condition of strength and
+independence. The effect of this system was to prevent all manufactures in
+the Colonies, and all trade with foreign countries, and even with the
+adjacent plantations.
+
+The Colonies remonstrated in vain against this policy, but owing to
+popular dissatisfaction, the regulations were not rigidly enforced. At
+length an Order in Council was passed, which directed the officers of the
+customs in Massachusetts Bay, to execute the acts of trade. A question
+arose in the Supreme Court of that province in 1761, upon the
+constitutional right of the British Parliament to bind the Colonies. The
+trial produced great excitement. The cause was argued for the Crown by the
+King's Attorney-General, and against the laws by James Otis.
+
+It will be seen that the question thus involved was the very one that was
+finally submitted to the arbitrament of arms in the American Revolution.
+The speech of Otis on the occasion, was an effort of surpassing ability.
+John Adams was a witness, and he recorded his opinion of it, and his
+opinion of the magnitude of the question, thus:
+
+"Otis was a flame of fire! With a promptitude of classical allusion, a
+depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a
+profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into
+futurity, a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all
+before him. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE was then and there born. Every man of an
+unusually crowded audience, appeared to me to go away ready to take up
+arms against Writs of Assistance."
+
+Speaking on the same subject, on another occasion, John Adams said that
+"James Otis there and there breathed into this nation the breath of life."
+
+From that day John Adams was an enthusiast for the independence of his
+country.
+
+In 1764 he married Abigail, daughter of the Reverend William Smith, of
+Weymouth. The mother of John Quincy Adams was a woman of great beauty and
+high intellectual endowments, and she combined, with the proper
+accomplishments of her sex, a sweetness of disposition, and a generous
+sympathy with the patriotic devotion of her illustrious husband.
+
+In 1765, the British Parliament, in contempt of the discontent of the
+Colonies, presumptuously passed the Stamp Act; a law which directed taxed
+stamped paper to be used in all legal instruments in the Colonies. The
+validity of the law was denied; and while Patrick Henry was denouncing it
+in Virginia, James Otis and John Adams argued against it before the
+Governor and Council of Massachusetts.
+
+The occasion called forth from John Adams a "Dissertation on the Canon and
+Feudal Laws,"--a work, which although it was of a general character in
+regard to government, yet manifested democratic sentiments unusual in
+those times, and indicated that republican institutions were the proper
+institutions for the American People.
+
+The resistance to the stamp act throughout the Colonies procured its
+repeal in 1766. But the British Government accompanied the repeal with an
+ungracious declaratory act, by which they asserted "that the Parliament
+had, and of right ought to have, power to bind the Colonies, in all cases
+whatsoever." In the next year a law was passed, which imposed duties in
+the Colonies, on glass, paper, paints, and tea. The spirit of
+insubordination manifested itself throughout the Colonies, and, inasmuch
+as it radiated from Boston, British ships of war were stationed in its
+harbor, and two regiments of British troops were thrown in the town, to
+compel obedience. John Adams had now become known as the most intrepid,
+zealous, and indefatigable opposer of British usurpation. The Crown tried
+upon him in vain the royal arts so successful on the other side of the
+Atlantic. The Governor and Council offered him the place of Advocate
+General in the Court of Admiralty, an office of great value; he declined
+it, "decidedly, peremptorily, but respectfully."
+
+At this interesting crisis, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was born, at Quincy, on the
+11th of July, 1767. A lesson, full of instruction concerning the mingled
+influences of piety and patriotism in New England, at that time, is
+furnished to us by the education of the younger Adams. Nor can we fail to
+notice that each of those virtues retained its relative power over him,
+throughout his long and eventful life. He was brought into the church and
+baptized on the day after that on which he was born.
+
+John Quincy Adams, in one of his letters, thus mentions the circumstances
+of his baptism:
+
+"The house at Mount Wollaston has a peculiar interest to me, as the
+dwelling of my great-grandfather, whose name I bear. The incident which
+gave rise to this circumstance is not without its moral to my heart. He
+was dying, when I was baptized; and his daughter, my grandmother, present
+at my birth, requested that I might receive his name. The fact, recorded
+by my father at the time, has connected with that portion of my name, a
+charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that
+gave the name. It was the name of one passing from earth to immortality.
+These have been among the strongest links of my attachment to the name of
+Quincy, and have been to me, through life, a perpetual admonition to do
+nothing unworthy of it."
+
+It cannot be doubted that the character of the person from whom, in such
+affecting circumstances, he derived an honorable patronymic, was an object
+of emulation. John Quincy was a gentleman of wealth, education, and
+influence. He was for a long time Speaker of the House of Representatives
+in Massachusetts, and during many years one of His Majesty's Provincial
+Council. He was a faithful representative, and throughout his public
+services, a vigorous defender of the rights and liberties of the Colony.
+Exemplary in private life, and earnest in piety, he enjoyed the public
+confidence, through a civil career of forty years' duration.
+
+The American Revolution was rapidly hurrying on during the infancy of John
+Quincy Adams. In 1769, the citizens of Boston held a meeting in which they
+instructed their representatives in the Provincial Legislature to resist
+the usurpations of the British Government. John Adams was chairman of the
+committee that prepared these instructions, and his associates were
+Richard Dana and Joseph Warren, the same distinguished patriot who gave up
+his life as one of the earliest sacrifices to freedom, in the battle of
+Bunker Hill.
+
+Those instructions were expressed in the bold and decided tone of John
+Adams, and they increased the public excitement in the province, by the
+earnestness with which they insisted on the removal of the British troops
+from Boston.
+
+The popular irritation increased, until on the 5th of March, 1770, a
+collision occurred between the troops and some of the inhabitants of
+Boston, in which five citizens were killed, and many wounded. This was
+called the Bloody Massacre. The exasperated inhabitants were with
+difficulty restrained from retaliating this severity by an extermination
+of all the British troops. A public meeting was held, and a committee, of
+which SAMUEL ADAMS was chairman, was appointed to address the Governor
+(Gage), and demand that the troops should be withdrawn. John Adams
+described the excitement, on a later occasion, in these words:
+
+"Not only the immense assemblies of the people from day to day, but
+military arrangements from night to night, were necessary to keep the
+people and the soldiers from getting together by the ears. The life of a
+red-coat would not have been safe in any street or corner of the town. Nor
+would the lives of the inhabitants have been much more secure. The whole
+militia of the city was in requisition, and military watches and guards
+were everywhere placed. We were all upon a level. No man was exempted: our
+military officers were our only superiors. I had the honor to be summoned
+in my turn, and attended at the State House with my musket and bayonet, my
+broadsword and cartridge-box, under the command of the famous Paddock."
+
+The Governor withdrew the troops and sent them to the castle: the
+commanding officer and some of the soldiers were arrested, and brought to
+trial for murder.
+
+John Adams, the advocate and leader of the exasperated people, was
+solicited by the Government to act as counsel for the accused. The people,
+in the heat of passion, would naturally identify the lawyer with his
+clients, and both with the odious cause in which they served. John Adams
+did not hesitate. His principle was fidelity to duty in all the relations
+of life. Adams, together with Josiah Quincy, defended the accused with
+ability and firmness, and the result crowned not only the advocates, but
+the jury and the people of Boston with honor. Distinguishing between the
+Government, upon whom the responsibility rested, and the troops who were
+its agents, the jury acquitted the accused. The people sustained the
+verdict; affording to Great Britain and to the world a noble proof, that
+they had been well prepared by education for the trust of self-government.
+
+The controversy between the Province of Massachusetts and the British
+Government continued, and the exasperation of the Colonies became more
+intense, until the destruction of the imported tea in the harbor, in
+December, 1773, incensed the Ministry so highly, that they procured an act
+closing the port of Boston. This act was followed by the convention of the
+first American Congress at Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. As
+John Adams had been the master spirit in the agitation in Massachusetts,
+he was appointed one of the Delegates to the General Congress. After his
+election, his friend Sewall, the King's Attorney General, labored
+earnestly to dissuade him from accepting the appointment.
+
+The Attorney General told the delegate that Great Britain was determined
+on her system, that her power was irresistible, and that he, and those
+with him who should persist in their designs of resistance, would be
+involved in ruin.
+
+John Adams replied, "I know Great Britain has determined on her system,
+and that very determination determines me on mine. You know I have been
+constant and uniform in opposition to her measures. The die is now cast. I
+have passed the Rubicon. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish
+with my country is my unalterable determination."
+
+It was these energetic and resolute expressions which Daniel Webster
+wrought into so magnificent an imaginary speech, in his glowing Eulogy on
+John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
+
+John Adams continued in Congress throughout the sessions of 1775 and 1776,
+and on all occasions was an intrepid and earnest advocate for
+Independence. On his motion, George Washington was appointed Commander in
+Chief of the Army.
+
+John Adams was the mover of Independence in the Congress. On the 6th of
+May, 1776, he brought the subject before that body, by a resolution
+expressed as follows:--
+
+"Whereas it appears perfectly irreconcilable to reason and good
+conscience, for the people of these Colonies now to take the oaths and
+affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown
+of Great Britain, and it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of
+authority under the said crown should be totally suppressed, and all the
+powers of government exerted under the authority of the people of the
+Colonies for the preservation of internal peace, virtue, and good order,
+as well as for the defence of their lives, liberties, and properties,
+against the hostile invasion, and cruel depredations of their
+enemies:--Therefore, it is recommended to the Colonies to adopt such a
+government as will, in the opinion of the representatives of the people,
+best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents, and of
+America."
+
+This resolution was adopted, and was followed by the appointment of a
+committee, on the motion of Richard Henry Lee, seconded by John Adams, to
+prepare a Declaration. This committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John
+Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.
+Jefferson and Adams were a sub-committee, and the former prepared the
+Declaration, at the urgent request of the latter.
+
+Jefferson bore this testimony to the ability and power of John
+Adams.--"The great pillar of support to the Declaration of Independence,
+and its ablest advocate and champion on the floor of the House, was John
+Adams."
+
+On the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, he wrote the
+memorable letter in which he said with prophetic unction,--"Yesterday the
+greatest question was decided that ever was debated in America; and
+greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among men. A resolution was
+passed without one dissenting Colony, 'That the United States are, and of
+right ought to be, free and independent States.' The day is passed. The
+fourth day of July, 1776, will be a memorable epoch in the history of
+America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding
+generations as a great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated
+as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It
+ought to be solemnized with pomps, shows, games, sports, guns, bells,
+bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other,
+from this time forward, forever. You may think me transported with
+enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and
+treasure, that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and
+defend these States: yet through all the gloom, I can see that the end is
+worth all the means; and that posterity will triumph, although you and I
+may rue, which I hope we shall not."
+
+From this time, until November 1777, John Adams was incessantly employed
+in public duties in Congress, during the session of that body; and during
+its recess, as a member of the State Council in Massachusetts. During this
+period, John Quincy was instructed at home, by her who, in long after
+years, he was accustomed to call his almost adored mother, who was aided
+by a law-student in the office of his father. EDWARD EVERETT, in his
+Eulogy upon John Quincy Adams, made the very striking and just remark,
+that there seemed to be in his life no such stage as that of boyhood.
+While yet but nine years old, he wrote to his father the following letter:
+
+                                                Braintree, June 2nd, 1777.
+DEAR SIR,
+I love to receive letters very well; much better than I love to write
+them. I make but a poor figure at composition. My head is much too fickle.
+My thoughts are running after bird's eggs, play and trifles, till I get
+vexed with myself. Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me a studying. I
+own I am ashamed of myself. I have but just entered the third volume of
+Rollin's History, but designed to have got half through it by this time.
+I am determined this week to be more diligent. Mr. Thaxter is absent at
+Court. I have set myself a stint this week, to read the third volume half
+out. If I can but keep my resolution, I may again at the end of the week
+give a better account of myself. I wish, sir, you would give me in
+writing, some instructions with regard to the use of my time, and advise
+me how to proportion my studies and play, and I will keep them by me, and
+endeavor to follow them.
+
+With the present determination of growing better, I am, dear sir, your son,
+                                                       JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+P. S. Sir--If you will be so good as to favor me with a blank book, I will
+transcribe the most remarkable passages I meet with in my reading, which
+will serve to fix them upon my mind.
+
+After making all just allowance for precocity of genius, we cannot but see
+that the early maturity of the younger Adams proves the great advantage of
+pure and intellectual associations in childhood.
+
+The time soon arrived when John Quincy Adams was to enjoy advantages of
+education such as were never afforded to any other American youth. Among
+the earliest acts of the American Congress, was the appointment of
+Benjamin Franklin, Silas Dean, and Arthur Lee, as Commissioners to France;
+they were charged to solicit aid from France, and to negotiate a treaty,
+by which the Independence of the United States should be acknowledged by
+Louis Sixteenth, then at the height of his popularity. Silas Dean was
+recalled in 1776, and John Adams was appointed to fill his place. He
+embarked on this mission the 13th of February, 1778, in the frigate
+Boston, commanded by Captain Tucker. John Adams had gone down to Quincy,
+and the frigate called there to receive him on board. On the eve of
+embarkation he wrote the following simple and touching letter to Mrs.
+Adams:
+
+            "Uncle Quincy's,--half after 11 o'clock, 13 February, 1778.
+"DEAREST OF FRIENDS,
+"I had not been twenty minutes in this house, before I had the happiness
+to see Captain Tucker and a midshipman coming for me. We will be soon on
+board, and may God prosper our voyage in every stage of it as much as at
+the beginning, and send to you, my dear children, and all my friends, the
+choicest blessings!
+
+"So wishes and prays yours, with an ardor that neither absence, nor any
+other event can abate,
+                                                          "JOHN ADAMS.
+"P. S. Johnny sends his duty to his mamma, and his love to his sisters and
+brothers. He behaves like a man."
+
+"He behaves like a man!"--Words which gave presage of the future character
+of John Quincy Adams. His education had now commenced: an education in the
+principles of heroic action, by John Adams, the colossus of the American
+Revolution. How devoted he was to this important charge, and with what
+true philosophy he conducted it, may be seen by the following letter
+written about that time by him, to Mrs. Adams:
+
+"Human nature, with all its infirmities and depravation, is still capable
+of great things. It is capable of attaining to degrees of wisdom and of
+goodness which we have reason to believe appear respectable in the
+estimation of superior intelligences. Education makes a greater
+difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and
+brute. The virtues and powers to which men may be trained, by early
+education and constant discipline, are truly sublime and astonishing.
+
+"Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which may be acquired
+by long habits of thinking and study. Nay, your common mechanics and
+artisans are proofs of the wonderful dexterity acquired by use; a
+watchmaker, finishing his wheels and springs, a pin or needle-maker, &c. I
+think there is a particular occupation in Europe, which is called paper
+staining, or linen staining, A man who has long been habituated to it,
+shall sit for a whole day, and draw upon paper various figures, to be
+imprinted upon the paper for rooms, as fast as his eye can roll and his
+fingers move, and no two of his draughts shall be alike. The Saracens, the
+Knights of Malta, the army and navy in the service of the English
+Republic, among many others, are instances to show to what an exalted
+height, valor or bravery or courage may be raised, by artificial means.
+
+"It should be your care therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our
+children, and exalt their courage, to accelerate and animate their
+industry and activity, to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness,
+abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every
+capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and
+creep in infancy, they will grovel and creep all their lives.
+
+"But their bodies must be hardened, as well as their souls exalted.
+Without strength, and activity and vigor of body, the brightest mental
+excellencies will be eclipsed and obscured.
+                                                        "JOHN ADAMS."
+
+No one can read this extraordinary letter, and compare it with the actual
+character of John Quincy Adams as ultimately developed, without regarding
+that character as a fulfilment, in all respects, of the prayers and
+purposes of his illustrious parent.
+
+The voyage of the American Minister was made in a time of great peril. The
+naval supremacy of Great Britain was already established. Her armed ships
+traversed the ocean in all directions. Captain Tucker saw a large English
+ship showing a row of guns, and with the consent of the Minister, engaged
+her. When hailed, she answered with a broadside. John Adams had been
+requested to retire to the cockpit, but when the engagement had begun, he
+was found among the marines, with a musket in his hands.
+
+The desired treaty with France had been consummated by Dr. Franklin,
+before the arrival of John Adams. After that event, Congress decided to
+have but one minister in that country, and Dr. Franklin having deservedly
+received the appointment, John Adams asked and obtained leave to return
+home, after an absence of a year and a half. During that period the
+younger Adams attended a public school in Paris, while his leisure hours
+were filled with the instructions casually derived from the conversation
+of John Adams, and Dr. Franklin, and other eminent intellectual persons,
+by whom his father was surrounded. The improvement of the son during his
+sojourn abroad is thus mentioned by John Adams, just before his
+embarkation on his return to America.
+
+"My son has had a great opportunity to see this country, but this has
+unavoidably retarded his education in some other things. He has enjoyed
+perfect health from first to last, and is respected wherever he goes, for
+his vigor and vivacity both of mind and body; for his constant good humor,
+and for his rapid progress in French, as well as in general knowledge,
+which, for his age, is uncommon."
+
+John Adams now regarded his public life as closed. He wrote to Mrs. Adams:
+
+"The Congress, I presume, expect that I should come home, and I shall come
+accordingly. As they have no business for me in Europe, I must contrive to
+get some for myself at home. Prepare yourself for removing to Boston, into
+the old house, for there you shall go, and I will draw writs and deeds,
+and harangue juries, and be happy."
+
+This calculation was signally erroneous, as all calculations upon personal
+ease and peace by great and good men always are. He remained at home only
+three months, and during that time he had other and higher occupations
+than drawing writs and deeds. He was elected Delegate to the Convention
+charged with the responsible and novel duty of forming a written
+constitution for Massachusetts. In that body he labored with untiring
+assiduity, as in Congress; the constitution thus produced was in a great
+measure prepared by himself, and it is due to his memory to record the
+fact, that it was among the most democratic of all the constitutions which
+were adopted by the new States. The younger Adams having returned to
+America with his father, had thus the advantage of seeing republican
+theories brought into successful, practical application.
+
+About this time Congress resolved on sending a Minister Plenipotentiary to
+Great Britain, to negotiate, if possible, a treaty of peace. John Adams
+and John Jay received each an equal number of votes. The result was the
+appointment of M. Jay as Minster to Spain, and of John Adams as Minister
+to the Court of St. James. He was instructed to insist on the independence
+of the United States.
+
+The younger Adams again attended the Diplomatist. They embarked in the
+French frigate La Sensible, on the 17th of November, 1779.
+
+The frigate sprang a leak, and was obliged to put into the port nearest at
+hand, which proved to be Ferrol in Spain. They disembarked on the 11th of
+December, and traversed the intervening distance to Paris over land, a
+journey of a thousand miles. This journey was performed through the
+mountains on mules. Spain, as well as France, was then in alliance with
+America, and the minister was everywhere received with respect and
+kindness. The French officers at Ferrol wore cockades in honor of the
+Triple Alliance, combining a white ribbon for the French, a red one for
+the Spanish, and a black one for the Americans.
+
+The United Powers proposed demands which were ominous of disappointment to
+the Minister.--On the 12th of December he wrote:--"It is said that England
+is as reluctant to acknowledge the independence of America, as to cede
+Gibraltar, the last of which is insisted upon, as well as the first."
+
+The travellers reached Paris about the middle of February, 1780. John
+Adams mentioned a singular coincidence in his letter announcing their
+arrival. "I have the honor to be lodged here with no less a personage than
+the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who is here upon a visit. We occupy different
+apartments in the same house, and have no intercourse with each other, to
+be sure; but some wags are of opinion, that if I were authorised to open
+a negotiation with him, I might obtain from him as many troops to fight on
+our side of the question, as he has already hired to the English against
+us!"
+
+The American Revolution has wrought wonderful changes since that day. No
+German Prince could now send a man, or a musket, to war against its
+principles.
+
+John Adams soon discovered that there was no prospect of success for his
+mission to England. He remained at Paris until August, 1780, and during
+the interval his son was kept at an academy in that city.
+
+At the expiration of that period the Minister repaired to Holland, and
+there received instructions to negotiate a loan, and then a treaty of
+amity and commerce with the states of that country. The younger Adams
+while in Holland was placed at school, first at Amsterdam, and afterwards
+in the University of Leyden.
+
+A letter of the father, dated at Amsterdam, 18th December, 1780, gives us
+a glimpse of the system of instruction approved by him, and a pleasant
+view of the principles which he deemed it important to be inculcated.
+
+"I have this morning sent Mr. Thaxter with my two sons to Leyden, there
+to take up their residence for some time, and there to pursue their
+studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent masters, and there to
+attend lectures of the celebrated professors in that University. It is
+much cheaper there than here. The air is infinitely purer, and the company
+and conversation are better. It is perhaps as learned a University as any
+in Europe.
+
+"I should not wish to have children educated in the common schools of this
+country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The masters are mean
+spirited wretches, pinching, kicking, and boxing the children upon every
+turn. There is, besides, a general littleness, arising from the incessant
+contemplation of stivers and doits, which pervades the whole people.
+
+"Frugality and industry are virtues everywhere, but avarice and stinginess
+are not frugality. The Dutch say, that without a habit of thinking of
+every doit before you spend it, no man can be a good merchant, or conduct
+trade with success.
+
+"This, I believe, is a just maxim in general; but I would never wish to
+see a son of mine govern himself by it. It is the sure and certain way for
+an industrious man to be rich. It is the only possible way for a merchant
+to become the first merchant, or the richest man in the place. But this is
+an object that I hope none of my children will ever aim at. It is indeed
+true everywhere, that those who attend to small expenses are always rich.
+
+"I would have my children attend to doits and farthings as devoutly as
+the merest Dutchman upon earth, if such attention was necessary to support
+their independence. A man who discovers a disposition and a design to be
+independent, seldom succeeds. A jealousy arises against him. The tyrants
+are alarmed on the one side, lest he should oppose them: the slaves are
+alarmed on the other, lest he should expose their servility. The cry from
+all quarters is, 'He is the proudest man in the world: He cannot bear to
+be under obligation.'
+
+"I never in my life observed anyone endeavoring to lay me under particular
+obligation to him, but I suspected he had a design to make me his
+dependent, and to have claims upon my gratitude. This I should have no
+objection to, because gratitude is always in one's power. But the danger
+is, that men will expect and require more of us than honor, and innocence,
+and rectitude will permit us to perform.
+
+"In our country, however, any man, with common industry and prudence, may
+be independent."
+
+One cannot turn over a page of the domestic history of John Adams, without
+finding a precept or example, the influence of which is manifested in the
+character of his illustrious son. Thus he writes to Mrs. Adams, touching
+certain calumnies which had been propagated against him:--
+
+  LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.   39
+
+"Do n't distress yourself about any malicious attempts to injure me in
+the estimation of my countrymen. Let them take their course, and go the
+length of their tether. They will never hurt your husband, whose character
+is fortified with a shield of innocence and honor, ten thousand-fold
+stronger than brass or iron. The contemptible essays, made by you know
+whom, will only tend to their own confusion. My letters have shown them
+their own ignorance, a sight they could not bear. Say as little about it
+as I do. I laugh, and will laugh before all posterity, at their impotent
+rage and envy."
+
+In July, 1781, Francis Dana, who had attended John Adams as Secretary of
+Legation, was appointed Minister to Russia. John Quincy Adams, then
+fourteen years old, was appointed Private Secretary of this mission. He
+remained at that post fourteen months, performing its duties with entire
+satisfaction to the minister. The singular ripeness of the youthful
+secretary was shown in his travelling alone, on his return from St.
+Petersburgh, by a journey leisurely made, and filled with observations of
+Sweden, Denmark, Hamburgh, and Bremen. On arriving in Holland, he resumed
+his studies at the Hague.
+
+John Adams, having completed his mission in Holland, was soon charged,
+together with Dr. Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, with the duty of
+negotiating a definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain. The treaty
+was executed at Paris on the 30th of November, 1783, and was ratified
+January 14th, 1784. The younger Adams enjoyed the satisfaction of being
+present at the conclusion of the treaty; and while it was under process of
+negotiation, he was constantly favored with opportunities of listening to
+the instructive conversation of Franklin and Jefferson.
+
+The negotiation of the treaty was dilatory in the extreme. It was
+embarrassed with French intrigues, great carelessness at home, and greater
+reluctance on the part of England. The wearied Minister wrote to Mrs.
+Adams on the 30th of May, 1783: "Our son is at the Hague, pursuing his
+studies with great ardor. They give him a good character wherever he has
+been, and I hope he will make a good man." On the 9th of June he wrote in
+these homely, but manly words:  "I am weary, worn, and disgusted to death.
+I had rather chop wood, dig ditches, and make fence upon my poor little
+farm. Alas, poor farm! and poorer family! what have you lost that your
+country might be free! and that others might catch fish and hunt deer and
+bears at their ease!
+
+"There will be as few of the tears of gratitude, or the smiles of
+admiration, or the sighs of pity for us, as for the army. But all this
+should not hinder me from going over the same scenes again, upon the same
+occasions--scenes which I would not encounter for all the wealth, pomp,
+and power of the world. Boys! if you ever say one word, or utter one
+complaint, I will disinherit you. Work! you rogues, and be free.  You will
+never have so hard work to do as papa has had. Daughter! get you an honest
+man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich,
+provided he be independent. Regard the honor and the moral character of
+the man, more than all circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that
+of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart."
+
+After concluding the treaty of peace, John Adams, together with Franklin
+and Jay, was charged with the duty of negotiating a treaty of commerce
+with Great Britain, and John Adams, taking his son John Quincy with him,
+proceeded to London, and took up his residence at the British Court. Mrs.
+Adams embarked in June, 1781, to join her husband.
+
+John Adams was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the same Court in
+1785, and thus he, who ten years before, when a subject, in the province
+of Massachusetts, had said, "I know that Great Britain has determined upon
+her system, and that very determination determines me on mine,"--was the
+first Representative of his independent country admitted to an audience by
+the discomfited majesty of the Imperial States. The occasion was adapted
+to excite profound emotions, though of different kinds, in each party.
+John Adams addressed the King thus:--
+
+"The United States of America have appointed me their Minister
+Plenipotentiary to your Majesty, and have directed me to deliver to your
+Majesty this letter, which contains the evidence of it.  It is in
+obedience to their express commands, that I have the honor to assure your
+Majesty of their unanimous disposition and desire to cultivate the most
+liberal and friendly intercourse between your Majesty's subjects and their
+citizens; and of their best wishes for your Majesty's health and
+happiness, and for that of your royal family.
+
+"The appointment of a Minister from the United States to your Majesty's
+Court, will form an epoch in the history of England and of America. I
+think myself more fortunate than all my fellow citizens, in having the
+distinguished honor to be the first to stand in your Majesty's royal
+presence, in a diplomatic character; and I shall esteem myself the
+happiest of men, if  I can be instrumental in recommending my Country more
+and more, to your Majesty's royal benevolence, and of restoring an entire
+esteem, confidence and affection, or in better words, 'the old good
+nature, and the old good harmony,' between people, who, though separated
+by an ocean, and under different governments, have the same language, a
+similar religion, and kindred blood. I beg your Majesty's permission to
+add, that although I have sometimes before been intrusted by my country,
+it was never, in my whole life, in a manner so agreeable to myself."
+
+George III. replied with dignity, but not without some manifestations of
+excitement:--
+
+"The circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary, the language you
+have now held is so extremely proper, and the feelings you have discovered
+so justly adapted to the occasion, that I must say that I not only receive
+with pleasure the assurances of the friendly disposition of the People of
+the United States, but I am very glad the choice has fallen upon you to be
+their Minister. I wish you, sir, to believe, and that it may be understood
+in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest, but what I
+thought myself indispensably bound to do, by the duty which I owed my
+people. I will be frank with you--I was the last to conform to the
+separation, but the separation having been made, and having become
+inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to
+meet the friendship of the United States, as an independent power.
+
+"The moment I see such sentiments and language as yours prevail, and a
+disposition to give this country the preference, that moment I shall say,
+let the circumstances of language, religion and blood have their natural
+and full effect."
+
+The kindly feelings expressed by the King, were, however, comparatively,
+only the language of ceremony, for the British Ministry, and the British
+people, did not regard the new republic with favor. But they could not
+withhold the exhibition of reluctant respect.
+
+It was at such a time as this, and in such circumstances, that John Quincy
+Adams surveyed, from a new position, the colossal structure of British
+power, and the workings of its combined systems of conservative
+aristocracy, and progressive democracy. It was here that he imbibed new
+veneration for Russell, Sidney, Hampden, and Milton, its republican
+patriots; for Shakspeare, Dryden, and Pope, its immortal poets; and for
+Addison and Johnson, its moralists; here he learned from Wilberforce the
+principles of political philanthropy, as well as the patience and
+perseverance to defend them, and studied eloquence by the living models of
+Pitt, Fox, Erskine, Burke, and Sheridan.
+
+This, indeed, was a fitting conclusion to a precocious education by the
+patriots and philosophers of his own country, with practical observations
+in the courts of Spain and the Netherlands, of the weak but amiable Louis
+XVI., and the accomplished, but depraved, Catharine II.
+
+John Quincy Adams now became fearful that the duties of manhood would
+devolve upon him without his having completed the necessary academic
+studies. He therefore obtained leave to return home in 1785, at the age of
+eighteen years, and entered Cambridge University, at an advanced standing,
+in 1786. He graduated in 1788 with deserved honors.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS STUDIES LAW--HIS PRACTICE--ENGAGES IN PUBLIC
+LIFE--APPOINTED MINISTER TO THE HAGUE.
+
+After leaving the University, young Adams entered the office of
+Theophilus Parsons, who was then in the practice of law at Newburyport,
+and who afterwards for so many years filled with dignity and ability the
+office of Chief Justice of Massachusetts.
+
+Adams completed the usual term of professional study, and then commenced
+the practice of the law in Boston. It may encourage some who are oppressed
+by the difficulties attending initiation in the profession, to know, that
+during the first and only four years of John Quincy Adams' practice, he
+had occasion for despondency.
+
+"I had long and lingering anxieties, (he afterwards said,) in looking
+forward, doubtful even of my prospects of comfortable subsistence, but
+acquiring more and more the means of it, till in the last of the four
+years, the business of my profession yielded me an income more than equal
+to my expenditures."
+
+But the country and the age had claims on John Quincy Adams, as well as on
+his father, for higher duties than "making writs," and "haranguing
+juries," and "being happy."
+
+The American Revolution, which had been brought to a successful close, had
+inspired, throughout Europe, a desire to renovate the institutions of
+government. The officers and citizens of France who had mingled in the
+contest, had carried home the seeds of freedom, and had scattered them
+abroad upon soil quick to receive them. The flame of Liberty, kindled on
+the shores of the Western Continent, was reflected back upon the Old
+World. France beheld its beams, and hailed them as a beacon-light, which
+should lead the nations out from the bondage of ages. Inspirited by the
+success attending the struggle in the British colonies, the French people,
+long crushed beneath a grinding despotism, resolved to burst their
+shackles and strike for Freedom. It was a noble resolution, but
+consummated, alas amid devastation and the wildest anarchy. The French
+Revolution filled the world with horror. It was the work of a blind giant,
+urged to fury by the remembrance of wrongs endured for generations. The
+Altar of Liberty was reared amid seas of blood, and stained with the gore
+of innocent victims.
+
+The measurable failure of this struggle in France, teaches the necessity
+of due preparation before a people can advance to the permanent possession
+and enjoyment of their rights. The American colonists had been trained to
+rational conceptions of freedom, by lessons of wisdom and sagacity read
+them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government,
+afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment of a large share of
+political privileges, granted by the mother country. They were thus
+prepared to lay deep and strong the foundations of an enlightened
+government, which, equally removed from the extremes of despotism on the
+one hand, and anarchy on the other, and granting its subjects the exercise
+of their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," shall
+endure through ages to come. But the people of France, shut up in darkness
+during centuries of misrule, passed at a step from abject servitude to
+unlimited freedom. They were unprepared for this violent transition. Their
+conceptions of liberty were of the most extravagant description. What
+wonder that they became dizzy at their sudden elevation! What wonder that
+blood flowed in rivers!--that dissension and faction rent them asunder--
+that a fearful anarchy soon reigned triumphant--or that the confused and
+troubled drama closed in the iron rule of a military conqueror--the Man of
+Destiny! Let not this lesson be lost upon the world. Let a people who
+would enjoy freedom, learn to merit the boon by the study of its
+principles and a preparation to exercise its privileges, under those
+salutary restraints which man can never throw off and be happy!
+
+The odium excited throughout Europe by the excesses of the French
+Revolution, was heaped without measure upon the American people. They were
+charged with the origin of the misrule which convulsed France, and filled
+the eastern hemisphere with alarm: and were tauntingly pointed to the
+crude theories promulgated by French democracy, and the failure of their
+phrenzied efforts to establish an enlightened and permanent Republic, as
+conclusive evidence that self-government, among any people, was a mere
+Utopian dream, which could never be realized.
+
+The establishment of a republican government in America, had not been
+relished by the monarchies of Europe. They looked upon it with distrust,
+as a precedent dangerous to them in the highest degree. The succor which
+Louis XVI. had rendered the revolting colonists, was not from a love of
+democratic institutions: it was his hope to cripple Great Britain, his
+ancient enemy, and to find some opportunity, perhaps, to win back his
+Canadian provinces, which had so recently been rent from his possession.
+When the pent-up flames of revolution burst forth at the very doors of the
+governments of the old world--when the French throne had been robbed of
+its king, and that king of his life--when a Republic had been proclaimed
+in their midst, and signal-notes of freedom were ringing in their
+borders--they became seriously alarmed. The growing evil must be checked
+immediately. Led on by England, the continental powers combined to
+exterminate at a blow, if possible, every vestige of Republicanism in
+France. Then commenced the long series of bloody wars, which, with little
+intermission, convulsed Europe for nearly a quarter of a century, and
+ceased only when the rock of St. Helena received its lonely exile.
+
+In the meantime affairs at home had attained to a critical juncture. The
+Constitution had been adopted. The new government had been set in
+operation under the supervision of Washington, as the first President of
+the Republic. The people, influenced by certain "elective affinities," had
+become sundered into two great political parties--Conservative and
+Progressive, or Federal and Democratic. Both were distrustful of the
+Constitution. The former believed it too weak to consolidate a government
+capable of protecting its subjects in the peaceful enjoyment of their
+rights, from discord within, and attacks from without. The latter
+apprehended that it might easily be transformed, by some ambitious
+Napoleon, into an instrument of oppression, more fearful even than the
+limited monarchy from which they had but recently escaped, at an expense
+of so much blood and treasure. Each of these parties are entitled to the
+credit of equal sincerity and honesty of purpose.
+
+Washington, with a loftiness of purpose truly characteristic of a great
+and good mind, refused to identify himself with either party. In forming
+his first cabinet, moved with a desire to heal the dissensions which
+distracted the country, he selected its members equally from the adverse
+factions. Hamilton and Knox represented the Federal party, and Jefferson
+and Randolph the opposite. During his entire administration, "the Father
+of his country" steadily aimed to keep himself clear from all party
+entanglements. He was emphatically the President of the whole people, and
+not of a faction. His magnanimous spirit would not stoop to party
+favoritism, nor allow him to exercise the power entrusted him, to promote
+the interests of any political clique. In all his measures his great
+object was to advance the welfare of the nation, without regard to their
+influence on conflicting parties. In these things he left behind him a
+pure and noble example, richly worthy the imitation of his successors in
+that high station.
+
+The Revolution in France, and the measures adopted by the Allied
+Sovereigns to arrest its progress, excited the liveliest interest among
+the people of the United States. But their sympathies ran in different
+channels, and very naturally took the hue of their party predilections.
+The Democrats, believing the French Revolution to be the up-springing of
+the same principles which had triumphed here--a lawful attempt of an
+oppressed people to secure the exercise of inalienable rights--although
+shuddering at the excesses which had been perpetrated, still felt it to be
+our own cause, and insisted that we were in honor and duty bound to render
+all the assistance in our power, even to a resort to arms, if need be. The
+Federalists, on the other hand, were alarmed at the anarchical tendencies
+in France. They were fearful that law, order, government, and society
+itself, would be utterly and speedily swept away, unless the revolutionary
+movement was arrested. Cherishing these apprehensions, they were disposed
+to favor the views of Great Britain and other European powers, and were
+anxious that the government of the United States should adopt some active
+measures to assist in checking what they could not but view as rapid
+strides to political and social anarchy. However the two parties differed
+as to the measures proper to be adopted in this crisis, they were united
+in the conviction that our government should take some part as a
+belligerant, in these European struggles; and exerted each its influence
+to bring about such an interference as would be in accordance with their
+conflicting views of duty and expediency.
+
+There was residing, at this period, in Boston, a young and nearly
+briefless lawyer, whose views on these important matters differed
+materially from those entertained by both parties. It was John Quincy
+Adams. While he could not countenance the attempts of the Allied Powers to
+destroy the French Republic, and re-establish a monarchy, he was equally
+far from favoring the turn which affairs were clearly taking in that
+unhappy country. He evidently foresaw the French Revolution would prove a
+failure; and that it was engendering an influence which, unchecked, would
+be deeply injurious to American liberty and order. To counteract this
+tendency, he published in the Boston Centinel, in 1791, a series of
+articles, signed "Publicola," in which he discussed with great ability,
+the wild vagaries engendered among political writers in France, and which
+had been caught up by many in our own country. These articles attracted
+much attention, both at home and abroad. They were re-published in
+England, as an answer to several points in Paine's "Rights of Man." So
+profound was the political sagacity they displayed, and so great the
+familiarity with public affairs, that they were, by general consent,
+attributed to the elder Adams. On this subject, John Adams writes his wife
+as follows, from Philadelphia, on the 5th December, 1793:--
+
+"The Viscount Noailles called on me. * * * * He seemed very critical in
+his inquiries concerning the letters printed as mine in England. I told
+him candidly that I did not write them, and as frankly, in confidence, who
+did. He says they made a great impression upon the people of England; that
+he heard Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox speak of them as the best thing that had
+been written, and as one of the best pieces of reasoning and style they
+had ever read."
+
+The younger Adams, in surveying the condition of the country at this
+critical period, became convinced it would be a fatal step for the new
+government to take sides with either of the great parties in Europe, who
+were engaged in the settlement of their difficulties by the arbitrement
+of arms. However strongly our sympathies were elicited in behalf of the
+French Republic--however we may have been bound in gratitude for the
+assistance rendered us during our Revolutionary struggle, to co-operate
+with France in her defence of popular institutions--still,
+self-preservation is the first law of nature. Mr. Adams saw, that to throw
+ourselves into the melee of European conflicts, would prostrate the
+interests of the country, and peril the very existence of the government.
+
+These views he embodied in a series of articles, which he published in the
+Boston Centinel, in 1793, under the signature of "Marcellus." He
+insisted it was alike the dictate of duty and policy, that the United
+States should remain strictly neutral between France and her enemies.
+These papers attracted general attention throughout the Union, and made a
+marked impression on the public mind. They were read by Washington, with
+expressions of the highest satisfaction; and he made particular inquiries
+respecting the author.
+
+The position of Mr. Adams on neutrality was new, and in opposition to the
+opinions of the great mass of the country. To him, it is believed, belongs
+the honor of first publicly advocating this line of policy, which
+afterwards became a settled principle of the American government.
+Non-interference with foreign affairs is a principle to which the Union
+has rigidly adhered to the present hour. In these articles too, Mr. Adams
+developed the political creed which governed him through life in regard to
+two great principles--union at home and independence of all foreign
+alliances or entanglements--independence not only politically, but in
+manufactures and in commerce.
+
+On the 25th of April, 1793, Washington issued a proclamation, announcing
+the neutrality of the United States between the belligerent nations of
+Europe. This proclamation was not issued until after Mr. Adams's articles
+urging this course had been before the public for some time. It is an
+honorable testimony to the sagacity of his views, that Washington, and the
+eminent men composing his cabinet, adopted a policy which coincided so
+perfectly with opinions he had formed purely from the strength of his own
+convictions. The proclamation pleased neither of the belligerent nations
+in Europe. It aroused the enmity of both; and laid open our commerce to
+the depredations of all parties, on the plea that the American government
+was inimical to their interests.
+
+While in the practice of law in Boston, Mr. Adams was not well satisfied
+with his condition or prospects. That he was laudably ambitious to arise
+to distinction in some honorable line is quite certain. But, singular as
+it may appear at this day, in view of his early life, and his acknowledged
+talents, he was not looking for, nor expecting, political preferment.
+These facts appear in the following passages from his diary, written at
+that time; and which, moreover, will be found to contain certain rules of
+action for life, which the young men of our country should studiously seek
+to imitate.
+
+"Wednesday, May 16th, 1792. I am not satisfied with the manner in which I
+employ my time. It is calculated to keep me forever fixed in that state of
+useless and disgraceful insignificancy, which has been my lot for some
+years past. At an age bearing close upon twenty-five, when many of the
+characters who were born for the benefit of their fellow-creatures have
+rendered themselves conspicuous among their cotemporaries, and founded a
+reputation upon which their memory remains, and will continue to the
+latest posterity--at that period, I still find myself as obscure, as
+unknown to the world, as the most indolent, or the most stupid of human
+beings. In the walks of active life I have done nothing. Fortune, indeed,
+who claims to herself a large proportion of the merit which exhibits to
+public view the talents of professional men, at an early period of their
+lives, has not hitherto been peculiarly indulgent to me. But if to my own
+mind I inquire whether I should, at this time, be qualified to receive and
+derive any benefit from an opportunity which it may be in her power to
+procure for me, my own mind would shrink from the investigation. My heart
+is not conscious of an unworthy ambition; nor of a desire to establish
+either fame, honor, or fortune upon any other foundation than that of
+desert. But it is conscious, and the consideration is equally painful and
+humiliating, it is conscious that the ambition is constant and unceasing,
+while the exertions to acquire the talents which ought alone to secure the
+reward of ambition, are feeble, indolent, frequently interrupted, and
+never pursued with an ardor equivalent to its purposes. My future fortunes
+in life are, therefore, the objects of my present speculation, and it may
+be proper for me to reflect further upon the same subject, and if
+possible, to adopt some resolutions which may enable me, as uncle Toby
+Shandy said of his miniature sieges, to answer the great ends of my
+existence.
+
+"First, then, I begin with establishing as a fundamental principle upon
+which all my subsequent pursuits and regulations are to be established,
+that the acquisition, at least, of a respectable reputation is (subject to
+the overruling power and wisdom of Providence,) within my own power; and
+that on my part nothing is wanting, but a constant and persevering
+determination to tread in the steps which naturally lead to honor. And, at
+the same time, I am equally convinced, that I never shall attain that
+credit in the world, which my nature directs me to wish, without such a
+steady, patient, and persevering pursuit of the means adapted to the end I
+have in view, as has often been the subject of my speculation, but never
+of my practice.
+
+ 'Labor and toil stand stern before the throne,
+  And guard--so Jove commands--the sacred place.'
+
+"The mode of life adopted almost universally by my cotemporaries and
+equals is by no means calculated to secure the object of my ambition. My
+emulation is seldom stimulated by observing the industry and application
+of those whom my situation in life gives me for companions. The pernicious
+and childish opinion that extraordinary genius cannot brook the slavery of
+plodding over the rubbish of antiquity (a cant so common among the
+heedless votaries of indolence), dulls the edge of all industry, and is
+one of the most powerful ingredients in the Circean potion which
+transforms many of the most promising young men into the beastly forms
+which, in sluggish idleness, feed upon the labors of others. The
+degenerate sentiment, I hope, will never obtain admission in my mind; and,
+if my mind should be loitered away in stupid laziness, it will be under
+the full conviction of my conscience that I am basely bartering the
+greatest benefits with which human beings can be indulged, for the
+miserable gratifications which are hardly worthy of contributing to the
+enjoyments of the brute creation.
+
+"And as I have grounded myself upon the principle, that my character is,
+under the smiles of heaven, to be the work of my own hands, it becomes
+necessary for me to determine upon what part of active or of speculative
+life I mean to rest my pretensions to eminence. My own situation and that
+of my country equally prohibit me from seeking to derive any present
+expectations from a public career. My disposition is not military; and,
+happily, the warlike talents are not those which open the most pleasing or
+the most reputable avenue to fame. I have had some transient thoughts of
+undertaking some useful literary performance, but the pursuit would
+militate too much at present with that of the profession upon which I am
+to depend, not only for my reputation, but for my subsistence.
+
+"I have, therefore, concluded that the most proper object of my present
+attention is that profession itself. And in acquiring the faculty to
+discharge the duties of it, in a manner suitable to my own wishes and the
+expectations of my friends, I find ample room for close and attentive
+application; for frequent and considerate observation; and for such
+benefits of practical experience as occasional opportunities may throw in
+the way."
+
+The following letter from John Adams, at this time Vice President of the
+United States, written to his wife at Quincy, will be interesting, as
+showing, among other things, his anxiety that his sons should make some
+start in life, which would give promise of future usefulness. He was far
+from believing that sons should repose in idleness on the reputation or
+wealth of parents.
+
+                                            "Philadelphia, 2 March, 1793.
+"My Dear,
+"Your letter from your sick chamber, if not from your sick bed, has made
+me so uneasy, that I must get away as soon as possible. Monday morning, at
+six, I am to set off in the stage; but how many days it will take to get
+home, will depend on the roads or the winds. I don't believe Abby [his
+daughter,] will go with me. Her husband [Col. William S. Smith,] is so
+proud of his wealth, that he would not let her go, I suppose, without a
+coach-and-four; and such monarchical trumpery I will in future have
+nothing to do with. I will never travel but by stage, nor live at the seat
+of government but at lodgings, while they give me so despicable an
+allowance. Shiver my jib and start my planks if I do!
+
+"I will stay but one night in New York. Smith says that my books are upon
+the table of every member of the Committee for framing a constitution of
+government for France, except Tom Paine, and he is so conceited as to
+disdain to have anything to do with books. Although I abused Smith a
+little above, he is very clever and agreeable; but I have been obliged to
+caution him against his disposition to boasting. Tell not of your
+prosperity, because it will make two men mad to one glad; nor of your
+adversity, for it will make two men glad to one sad. He boasts too much of
+having made his fortune, and placed himself at ease, above all favors of
+government. This is a weakness, and betrays too little knowledge of the
+world; too little penetration; too little discretion. I wish, however,
+that my boys had a little more of his activity. I must soon treat them as
+the pigeons treat their squabs--push them off the limb, and make them put
+out their wings or fall. Young pigeons will never fly till this is done.
+Smith has acquired the confidence of the French ministry, and the better
+sort of the members of the National Convention. But the Executive is too
+changeable in that country to be depended on, without the utmost caution.
+                                    "Adieu, adieu, tendrement,   J. A."
+
+One of the sons of the noble patriot, soon "put out his wings," and
+soared, ultimately, to a pinnacle of honor and renown attained by few
+among men. In the winter of 1793 and 1794, the public mind had become
+highly excited from the inflammatory appeals in behalf of France, by
+Citizen Genet, the French Minister to the United States. A large portion
+of the anti-Federal party took sides with Mr. Genet, against the neutral
+position of our Government, and seemed determined to plunge the Union into
+the European contest, in aid of the French Republic. Some idea may be
+obtained of the excitement which prevailed at this time, and of the
+perilous condition of the country, by an extract or two from letters of
+Vice-President John Adams. In a letter dated Philadelphia, Dec. 5, 1793,
+he writes as follows:--
+
+"It will require all the address, all the temper, and all the firmness of
+Congress and the States, to keep this people out of the war; or rather, to
+avoid a declaration of war against us, from some mischievous power or
+other. It is but little that I can do, either by the functions which the
+Constitution has entrusted to me, or by my personal influence; but that
+little shall be industriously employed, until it is put beyond a doubt
+that it will be fruitless; and then, I shall be as ready to meet
+unavoidable calamities, as any other citizen."
+
+Under date of Jan. 9, 1794, he says:--
+
+"The prospects of this country are gloomy, but the situation of all Europe
+is calamitous beyond all former examples. At what time, and in what
+manner, and by what means, the disasters which are come, and seem to be
+coming on mankind, may be averted, I know not. Our own people have been
+imprudent, as I think, and are now smarting under the effects of their
+indiscretion; but this, instead of a consolation, is an aggravation of our
+misfortune. Mr. Genet has been abusive on the President [Washington] and
+all his ministers, beyond all measure of decency or obligations of truth,
+and in other respects, not yet publicly investigated, his conduct has been
+such as to make it difficult to know what to do with him. * * * * * The
+news of this evening is, that the Queen of France is no more.
+[Footnote: Marie Antoinette was beheaded in Paris, on the 16th of October,
+1773.]
+When will savages be satiated with blood? No prospect of peace in Europe,
+and therefore none of internal harmony in America. We cannot well be in a
+more disagreeable situation than we are with all Europe, with all Indians,
+and with all Barbary rovers. Nearly one half of the Continent is in
+constant opposition to the other, and the President's situation, which is
+highly responsible, is very distressing."
+
+It taxed the wisdom and skill of Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of State,
+to counteract the influence of the French Minister, and prevent citizens
+of the United States from committing overt acts against the Allied
+Sovereigns, and embroiling the Union in a foreign war. In this endeavor he
+was greatly assisted by the pen of Mr. J. Q. Adams. This gentleman wrote a
+series of essays for the public prints, under the signature of "Columbus,"
+reviewing the course of Mr. Genet. In these articles, he pointed out, with
+great clearness, the principles of the law of nations applicable to the
+situation of the country in the neutral line of policy which had been
+wisely adopted.
+
+In reference to this topic, John Adams writes his wife, as follows, under
+date of Dec. 19, 1793:--
+
+"The President has considered the conduct of Genet very nearly in the same
+light with 'Columbus,' and has given him a bolt of thunder. We shall see
+how this is supported by the two Houses. There are who gnash their teeth
+with rage which they dare not own as yet. We shall soon see whether we
+have any government or not in this country."
+
+The political writings of the younger Adams had now brought him
+prominently before the public. They attracted the especial attention of
+Mr. Jefferson, who saw in them a vastness of comprehension, a maturity of
+judgment and critical discrimination, which gave large promise of future
+usefulness and eminence. Before his retirement from the State Department,
+he commended the youthful statesman to the favorable regard of President
+Washington, as one pre-eminently fitted for public service.
+
+General Washington, although a soldier by profession, was a lover of
+peace. His policy during his administration of the government, was
+pre-eminently pacific. Convinced that, in the infant state of the Union,
+war with a foreign nation could result only in evil and ruin, he was
+anxious to cultivate the most friendly relations with foreign governments,
+and to carry out, both in letter and spirit, the strict neutrality he had
+proclaimed. To declare and maintain these principles abroad, and to form
+political and commercial relations with European powers, Washington looked
+anxiously around for one fitted for a mission so important. His attention
+soon became fixed on John Quincy Adams. He saw in him qualities not only
+of deep political sagacity, and views of policy at unity with his own, but
+a familiarity with the languages and customs of foreign courts, which
+marked him as one every way calculated to represent our government with
+credit in the old world. He accordingly, in May, 1794, appointed Mr. Adams
+Minister of the United States at the Hague.
+
+That this prominent appointment was as flattering to Mr. Adams as it was
+unexpected, is naturally true. It was the more to his credit in
+consideration of the fact, that in those days elevation to offices of this
+importance was the award of merit and talent, and not the result of
+importunity, or the payment of party services. Mr. Adams was at this time
+in the twenty-seventh year of his age--a younger man, undoubtedly, than
+has since ever been selected by our Government to fulfil a trust so
+important. But the ability and discretion of the young diplomatist, and
+the success which attended his negotiations in Europe, so creditable to
+himself and his country, fully justified the wisdom of Washington in
+selecting him for this important duty.
+
+Although the father of Mr. Adams was then Vice President of the United
+States, yet it is well known his appointment on a foreign mission was
+obtained without the influence or even the request of his parent. It is
+not strictly correct, however, as stated by several biographers, that he
+was selected for the mission to Holland without any previous intimation of
+the President's intentions to his father. This is made evident by the
+following extract of a letter from John Adams to his wife, dated
+Philadelphia, 27th May, 1794, conveying intelligence which must have made
+a mother's heart swell with honest pride and satisfaction:--
+
+"It is proper that I should apprize you, that the President has it in
+contemplation to send your son to Holland, that you may recollect yourself
+and prepare for the event. I make this communication to you in confidence,
+at the desire of the President, communicated to me yesterday by the
+Secretary of State. You must keep it an entire secret until it shall be
+announced to the public in the journal of the Senate. But our son must
+hold himself in readiness to come to Philadelphia, to converse with the
+President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, &c., and receive
+his commissions and instructions, without loss of time. He will go to
+Providence in the stage, and thence to New York by water, and thence to
+Philadelphia in the stage. He will not set out, however, until he is
+informed of his appointment."
+
+"Your son!" is the phrase by which the father meant to convey his own
+sense of how large a part the mother had in training that son; and to
+enhance the compliment, it is communicated to her at the desire of
+President Washington.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. ADAMS TRANSFERRED TO BERLIN--HIS MARRIAGE--LITERARY
+PURSUITS--TRAVELS IN SILESIA--NEGOTIATES TREATIES WITH SWEDEN
+AND PRUSSIA--RECALLED TO THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Mr. Adams presented himself at the Hague, as Minister Plenipotentiary of
+the United States, in the summer or fall of 1794. Ten years before, he was
+there with his father--a lad, attending school--at which time the father
+wrote: "They give him a good character wherever he has been, and I hope he
+will make a good man." How abundantly that hope was likely to be
+fulfilled, the elevated and responsible position occupied by the son at
+the expiration of the first ten years after it was expressed, gave a
+promising and true indication.
+
+On his arrival in Holland, Mr. Adams found the affairs of that country in
+great confusion, in consequence of the French invasion. So difficult was
+it to prosecute any permanent measures for the benefit of the United
+States, owing to the existing wars and the unsettled state of things in
+Europe, that after a few months he thought seriously of returning home. A
+report of this nature having reached President Washington, drew from him a
+letter to Vice President John Adams, dated Aug. 20, 1795, in which the
+following language occurs:--
+
+"Your son must not think of retiring from the path he is now in. His
+prospects, if he pursues it, are fair; and I shall be much mistaken if, in
+as short a time as can well be expected, he is not found at the head of
+the Diplomatic Corps, be the government administered by whomsoever the
+people may choose."
+
+This approbation of his proceedings thus far, and encouragement as to
+future success, from so high a source, undoubtedly induced the younger
+Adams to forego his inclination to withdraw from the field of diplomacy.
+He continued in Holland until near the close of Washington's
+administration. That he was not an inattentive observer of the momentous
+events then transpiring in Europe, but was watchful and faithful in all
+that pertained to the welfare of his country, is abundantly proved by his
+official correspondence with the government at home. His communications
+were esteemed by Washington, as of the highest value, affording him, as
+they did, a luminous description of the movement of continental affairs,
+upon which he could place the most implicit reliance.
+
+The following extract of a letter from John Adams, will show the interest
+he naturally took in the welfare of his son while abroad, and also afford
+a brief glance at the political movements of that day. It is dated
+Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 1796:--
+
+"We have been very unfortunate in the delays which have attended the
+dispatches of our ambassadors. Very lucky, Mr. John Quincy Adams, that you
+are not liable to criticism on this occasion! This demurrage would have
+been charged doubly, both to your account and that of your father. It
+would have been a scheme, a trick, a design, a contrivance, from hatred to
+France, attachment to England, monarchical manoeuvres, and aristocratical
+cunning! Oh! how eloquent they would have been!
+
+"The southern gentry are playing, at present, a very artful game, which I
+may develope to you in confidence hereafter, under the seal of secrecy.
+Both in conversation and in letters, they are representing the
+Vice-President [John Adams,] as a man of moderation. Although rather
+inclined to limited monarchy, and somewhat attached to the English, he is
+much less so than Jay or Hamilton. For their part, for the sake of
+conciliation, they should be very willing he should be continued as
+Vice-President, provided the northern gentlemen would consent that
+Jefferson should be President. I most humbly thank you for your kind
+condescension, Messieurs Transchesapeakes.
+                 "Witness my hand,
+                                                        "JOHN ADAMS."
+
+Another allusion to his son while abroad, is made by the elder Adams, in a
+letter dated Philadelphia, March 25,1796.
+
+"The President told me he had that day received three or four letters from
+his new Minister in London, one of them as late as the 29th of December.
+Mr. Pickering informs me that Mr. Adams [Footnote: John Quincy Adams]
+modestly declined a presentation at court, but it was insisted on by Lord
+Grenville; and, accordingly, he was presented to the King, and I think
+the Queen, and made his harangues and received his answers. By the papers
+I find that Mr. Pinckney appeared at court on the 28th of January, after
+which, I presume, Mr. Adams had nothing to do but return to Holland."
+
+During his residence as Minister at the Hague, Mr. Adams had occasion to
+visit London, to exchange the ratifications of the treaty recently formed
+with Great Britain, and to take measures for carrying its provisions into
+effect. (Alluded to in the above letter from John Adams.) It was at this
+time that he formed an acquaintance with Miss Louisa Catharine Johnson,
+daughter of Joshua Johnson, Esq., of Maryland, Consular Agent of the
+United States at London, and niece of Governor Johnson of Maryland, a
+Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a signer of the
+Declaration of Independence. The friendship they formed for each other,
+soon ripened into a mutual attachment and an engagement. They were married
+on the 26th of July, 1797. It was a happy union. For more than half a
+century they shared each other's joys and sorrows. The venerable matron
+who for this long period accompanied him in all the vicissitudes of his
+eventful life, still survives, to deplore the loss of him who had ever
+proved a faithful protector and the kindest of husbands.
+
+In the meantime, the elder Adams had been elected President of the United
+States, in 1796. The curious reader may have a desire to know something of
+the views, feelings and anticipations of those elevated to places of the
+highest distinction, and of the amount of enjoyment they reap from the
+honors conferred upon them. A glance behind the scenes is furnished in the
+following correspondence between John Adams and his wife, which took place
+at his election to the Presidency. [Footnote: Letters of John Adams, v.
+ii. pp. 242,243. Mrs. Adams' Letters, p. 373.]
+
+
+MR. ADAMS TO HIS WIFE.
+                                       "Philadelphia, 4th of Feb., 1797.
+"My Dearest Friend,
+
+"I hope you will not communicate to anybody the hints I give you about our
+prospects; but they appear every day worse and worse. House rent at
+twenty-seven hundred dollars a year, fifteen hundred dollars for a
+carriage, one thousand for one pair of horses, all the glasses, ornaments,
+kitchen furniture, the best chairs, settees, plateaus, &c., all to
+purchase; all the china, delph or wedgewood, glass and crockery of every
+sort to purchase, and not a farthing probably will the House of
+Representatives allow, though the Senate have voted a small addition. All
+the linen besides. I shall not pretend to keep more than one pair of
+horses for a carriage, and one for a saddle. Secretaries, servants, wood,
+charities, which are demanded as rights, and the million dittoes, present
+such a prospect as is enough to disgust anyone. Yet not one word must we
+say. We cannot go back. We must stand our ground as long as we can.
+Dispose of our places with the help of our friend Dr. Tufts, as well as
+you can. We are impatient for news, but that is always so at this season.
+                                             I am tenderly your   J. A."
+
+THE SAME TO THE SAME.
+
+                                            "Philadelphia, 9th Feb., 1797.
+"My Dearest Friend,
+
+"The die is cast,[Footnote: Mr. Adams had, the day previous, been
+announced President elect of the United States.] and you must prepare
+yourself for honorable trials. I must wait to know whether Congress will
+do anything or not to furnish my house. If they do not, I will have no
+house before next fall, and then a very moderate one, with very moderate
+furniture. The prisoners from Algiers [Footnote: American citizens who had
+long been in captivity among the Algerines.] arrived yesterday in this
+City, in good health, and looking very well. Captain Stevens is among
+them. One woman rushed into the crowd and picked out her husband, whom she
+had not seen for fourteen years.
+
+              "I am, and ever shall be, yours, and no other's,   J. A."
+
+
+MRS. JOHN ADAMS TO HER HUSBAND.
+
+                                       "Quincy, 8th Feb., 1797.
+             "'The sun is dressed in brightest beams,
+             To give thy honors to the day.'
+
+"And may it prove an auspicious prelude to each ensuing season. You have
+this day to declare yourself head of a nation. 'And now, O Lord, my God,
+thou hast made thy servant ruler over the people. Give unto him an
+understanding heart, that he may know how to go out and come in before
+this great people; that he may discern between good and bad. For who is
+able to judge this thy so great a people?' were the words of a royal
+sovereign; and not less applicable to him who is invested with the Chief
+Magistracy of a nation, though he wear not a crown, nor the robes of
+royalty.
+
+"My thoughts and my meditations are with you, though personally absent;
+and my petitions to Heaven are, that 'the things which make for peace may
+not be hidden from your eyes.' My feelings are not those of pride or
+ostentation, upon the occasion. They are solemnized by a sense of the
+obligations, the important trusts, and numerous duties connected with it.
+That, you may be enabled to discharge them with honor to yourself, with
+justice and impartiality to your country, and with satisfaction to this
+great people, shall be the daily prayer of your                  A. A."
+
+
+MR. ADAMS TO HIS WIFE.
+
+                                      "Philadelphia, 5th March, 1797.
+"My Dearest Friend,
+
+"Your dearest friend never had a more trying day than yesterday.[Footnote:
+The day of his inauguration as President.]  A solemn scene it was indeed;
+and it was made more affecting to me by the presence of the General,
+[Washington,] whose countenance was as serene and unclouded as the day. He
+seemed to me to enjoy a triumph over me. Methought I heard him say, 'Ay!
+I am fairly out, and you fairly in! See which of us will be happiest.'
+When the ceremony was over, he came and made me a visit, and cordially
+congratulated me, and wished my administration might be happy, successful,
+and honorable.
+
+"It is now settled that I am to go into his house. It is whispered that he
+intends to take French leave to-morrow. I shall write you as fast as we
+proceed. My chariot is finished, and I made my first appearance in it
+yesterday. It is simple, but elegant enough. My horses are young, but
+clever.
+
+"In the chamber of the House of Representatives, was a multitude as great
+as the space could contain, and I believe scarcely a dry eye but
+Washington's. The sight of the sun setting full orbed, and another rising,
+though less splendid, was a novelty. Chief Justice Ellsworth administered
+the oath, and with great energy. Judges Cushing, Wilson, and Iredell,
+were present. Many ladies. I had not slept well the night before, and did
+not sleep well the night after. I was unwell, and did not know whether I
+should get through or not. I did, however. How the business was received,
+I know not; only I have been told that Mason, the treaty publisher, said
+we should lose nothing by the change, for he never heard such a speech in
+public in his life.
+
+"All agree that, taken altogether, it was the sublimest thing ever
+exhibited in America.
+
+"I am, my dearest friend, most affectionately and kindly yours,
+                                                  "JOHN ADAMS."
+
+On entering upon the duties of the Presidency, John Adams was greatly
+embarrassed in regard to the line he should adopt toward his son. True,
+the younger Adams had been entrusted by Washington with an important
+embassy abroad, and had acquitted himself with great credit in his
+responsible station; but the father, with a delicacy highly honorable,
+hesitated continuing him in office, lest he might be charged with unworthy
+favoritism, and a disposition to promote the interest of his family at the
+expense of public good. In this exigency, not daring to trust his own
+judgment, lest its decisions might be warped by parental solicitude, he
+resorted to the wisdom and experience of Washington. Writing him for
+advice on this subject, he received the following reply:--
+
+                                              "Monday, Feb. 20, 1797.
+"Dear Sir,
+
+"I thank you for giving me a perusal of the enclosed. The sentiments do
+honor to the head and the heart of the writer; and if my wishes would be
+of any avail, they should go to you in a strong hope, that you will not
+withhold merited promotion from John Q. Adams, because he is your son. For
+without intending to compliment the father or the mother, or to censure
+any others, I give it as my decided opinion, that Mr. Adams is the most
+valuable public character we have abroad; and that there remains no doubt
+in my mind, that he will prove himself to be the ablest of all our
+diplomatic corps. If he was now to be brought into that line, or into any
+other public walk, I could not, upon the principle which has regulated my
+own conduct, disapprove of the caution which is hinted at in the letter.
+But he is already entered; the public, more and more, as he is known, are
+appreciating his talents and worth; and his country would sustain a loss,
+if these were to be checked by over delicacy on your part.
+
+"With sincere esteem, and affectionate regard,
+                             "I am ever yours,
+                                 "GEORGE WASHINGTON."
+
+This letter is characteristic of the discernment and nobleness of
+Washington. Appreciating at a glance the perplexed position of Mr. Adams,
+and wisely discriminating between the bringing forward of his son for the
+first time into public service, and the continuing him where he had
+already been placed by others, and shown himself worthy of all trust and
+confidence, he frankly advised him to overcome his scruples, and permit
+his son to remain in a career so full of promise to himself and his
+country. President Adams, in agreement with this counsel, determined to
+allow his son to continue in Europe in the public capacity to which he had
+been promoted by Washington.
+
+Shortly previous to the close of Washington's administration, he
+transferred the younger Adams from the Hague, by an appointment as
+Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal, but before proceeding to Lisbon, his
+father, in the meantime having become President, changed his destination
+to Berlin. He arrived in that city in the autumn of 1797, and immediately
+entered upon the discharge of his duties as Minister of the United States.
+In 1798, while retaining his office at Berlin, he was commissioned to form
+a commercial treaty with Sweden.
+
+During his residence at Berlin, Mr. Adams, while attending with unsleeping
+diligence to his public duties, did not forego the more congenial pursuits
+of literature. He cultivated the acquaintance of many eminent German
+scholars and poets, and manifested a friendly sympathy in their pursuits.
+In a letter to the late Dr. Follen writes of that day as follows:--
+
+"At this time, Wieland was there the most popular of the German poets.
+And although there was in his genius neither the originality nor the deep
+pathos of Goethe, Klopstock, or Schiller there was something in the
+playfulness of his imagination, in the tenderness of his sensibility, in
+the sunny cheerfulness of his philosophy, and in the harmony of his
+versification, which delighted me."
+
+To perfect his knowledge of the German language, Mr. Adams made a metrical
+translation of Wieland's Oberon into the English language. The
+publication of this work, which at one time was designed, was superseded
+by the appearance of a similar translation by Sotheby.
+
+In the summer of 1800, Mr. Adams made a tour through Silesia. He was
+charmed with the inhabitants of that region, their condition and habits.
+In many respects he found them bearing a great similarity to the people of
+his own native New England. He communicated his impressions during this
+excursion, in a series of letters to a younger brother in Philadelphia.
+These letters were interesting, and were considered of great value at that
+time, in consequence of many important facts they contained in regard to
+the manufacturing establishments of Silesia. They were published, without
+Mr. Adams's knowledge, in the Port Folio, a weekly paper edited by Joseph
+Dennie, at Philadelphia. The series was afterwards collected and
+published in a volume, in London, and has been translated into German and
+French, and extensively circulated on the continent.
+
+Among other labors while at Berlin, Mr. Adams succeeded in forming a
+treaty of amity and commerce with the Prussian government. The protracted
+correspondence with the Prussian commissioners, which resulted in this
+treaty, involving as it did the rights of neutral commerce, was conducted
+with consummate ability on the part of Mr. Adams, and received the fullest
+sanction of the government at home.
+
+Mr. Adams' missions at the Hague and at Berlin, constituted his first step
+in the intricate paths of diplomacy. They were accomplished amid the
+momentous events which convulsed all Europe, at the close of the
+eighteenth century. Republican France, exasperated at the machinations of
+the Allied Sovereigns to destroy its liberties, so recently obtained, was
+pushing its armies abroad, determined, in self-defence, to kindle the
+flames of revolution in every kingdom on the Continent. Great Britain,
+combined with Austria and other European powers, was using every effort to
+crush the French democracy, and remove from before the eyes of
+down-trodden millions an example so dangerous to monarchical institutions.
+The star of Napoleon had commenced its ascent, with a suddenness and
+brightness which startled the imbecile occupants of old thrones. His
+legions had rushed down from the Alps upon the sunny plains of Italy, and
+with the swoop of an eagle, had demolished towns, cities, kingdoms.
+
+Amid this conflict of nations, the commerce and navigation of the United
+States, a neutral power, were made common object of prey to all. Great
+Britain and France especially, did not hesitate to make depredations, at
+once the most injurious and irritating. Our ships were captured, our
+rights disregarded. In the midst of these scenes, surrounded by
+difficulties and embarrassments on every hand, the youthful ambassador was
+compelled to come into collision with the veteran and wily politicians of
+the old world. How well he maintained the dignity and honor of his
+government--how sleepless the vigilance with which he watched the
+movements on the vast field of political strife--how prompt to protest
+against all encroachments--how skilful in conducting negotiations--and how
+active to promote the interests of the Union, wherever his influence could
+be felt--the  archives of our country will abundantly testify. It was a
+fitting and promising commencement of a long public career which has been
+full of usefulness and of honor.
+
+The administration of John Adams, as President of the United States, was
+characterized by great prudence and moderation, considering the excited
+state of the times. There cannot be a doubt he was anxious to copy the
+worthy example of his illustrious predecessor, in administering the
+government on principles of strict impartiality, for the good of the whole
+people, without respect to conflicting parties. Immediately on his
+inauguration, he had an interview with Mr. Jefferson, then Vice-
+President, and proposed the adoption of steps that would have a tendency
+to quell the spirit of faction which pervaded the country. That Mr.
+Jefferson, on his part, cherished a profound respect for Mr. Adams, his
+old co-laborer in the cause of American freedom, is evident from his
+letters and speeches of that day. In his speech on taking the chair of the
+Senate, as Vice-President, he expressed himself in the following terms:--
+
+"I might here proceed, and with the greatest truth, to declare my zealous
+attachment to the Constitution of the United States; that I consider the
+union of these States as the first of blessings; and as the first of
+duties the preservation of that Constitution which secures it; but I
+suppose these declarations not pertinent to the occasion of entering into
+an office, whose primary business is merely to preside over the forms of
+this House; and no one more sincerely prays that no accident may call me
+to the higher and more important functions, which the Constitution
+eventually devolves on this office. These have been justly confided to the
+eminent character which has preceded me here, whose talents and integrity
+have been known and revered by me, through a long course of years; have
+been the foundation of a cordial and uninterrupted friendship between us;
+and I devoutly pray he may be long preserved for the government, the
+happiness and the prosperity of our common country."
+
+The sincere attempts of President Adams to produce harmony of political
+action among the American people, were unavailing. The extraordinary
+events transpiring in Europe, exerted an influence on domestic politics,
+which could not be neutralized. "The enemies of France"--"the friends of
+England," or vice versa, were cries which convulsed the nation to its
+centre. The entire population was sundered into contending parties.
+
+John Adams was a true republican. His political opponents charged him with
+monarchical tendencies and aspirations, but charged him most falsely. His
+life, devoted unreservedly to the service of his country through all its
+dark and perilous journey to the achievement of its independence--his
+public speeches and documents--his private letters, written to his bosom
+companion, with no expectation that the eye of any other would ever rest
+upon them--all testify his ardent devotion to the principles of
+republicanism. At the breaking out of the French Revolution, he yielded it
+his hearty support, and did not withdraw his countenance, until compelled,
+by the scenes of anarchy and of carnage which soon ensued, to turn away
+with horror and raise his voice against proceedings of savage ferocity.
+But while condemning the excesses of the French revolutionists, he was no
+friend of Great Britain. This is made evident by a multitude of facts.
+Read, for instance, the following extract from a letter, not written for
+public effect, addressed to his wife, dated Philadelphia, April 9, 1796:--
+
+"I have read 'the minister's' dispatches from London. The King could not
+help discovering his old ill humor. The mad idiot will never recover.
+Blunderer by nature, accidents are all against him. Every measure of his
+reign has been wrong. It seems they don't like Pinckney. They think he is
+no friend to that country, and too much of a French Jacobin. They wanted
+to work up some idea or other of introducing another in his place, but our
+young politician [Footnote: J. Q. Adams.] saw into them too deeply to be
+duped. At his last visit to Court, the King passed him without speaking to
+him, which, you know, will be remarked by courtiers of all nations. I am
+glad of it; for I would not have my son go so far as Mr. Jay, and affirm
+the friendly disposition of that country to this. I know better. I know
+their jealousy, envy, hatred, and revenge, covered under pretended
+contempt."
+
+While President Adams cherished no partialities for Great Britain, and had
+no desire to promote her especial interest, he was compelled by the force
+of circumstances, during his administration to assume a hostile attitude
+towards France. The French Directory, chagrined at the failure of all
+attempts to induce the government of the United States to abandon its
+neutrality and take up arms in their behalf against the Allied Sovereigns,
+and deeply incensed at the treaty recently concluded between England and
+the United States, resorted to retaliatory measures. They adopted
+commercial regulations designed to cripple and destroy our foreign trade.
+They passed an ordinance authorizing, in certain cases, the seizure and
+confiscation of American vessels and cargoes. They refused to receive Mr.
+Pinckney, the American minister, and ordered him peremptorily to leave
+France.
+
+Mr. Adams convened Congress, by proclamation, on the 15th of June, 1797,
+and in his message laid before that body a lucid statement of the
+aggressions of the French Directory. Congress made advances, with a view
+to a reconciliation with France. But failing in this attempt, immediate
+and vigorous measures were adopted to place the country in a condition for
+war. A small standing army was authorized. The command was tendered to
+Gen. Washington, who accepted of it with alacrity, sanctioning as he did
+these defensive measures of the government. Steps were taken for a naval
+armament, and the capture of French vessels   authorized. These energetic
+demonstrations produced their desired effect. The war proceeded no farther
+than a few collisions at sea. The French Directory became alarmed, and
+made overtures of peace.
+
+Washington did not survive to witness the restoration of amicable
+relations with France. On the 14th of December, 1799, after a brief
+illness, he departed this life, at Mount Vernon, aged sixty-eight years.
+On receiving this mournful intelligence, Congress, then in session at
+Philadelphia, passed the following resolution:--
+
+"Resolved, That the Speaker's chair should be shrouded in black; that the
+members should wear black during the session, and that a joint committee,
+from the Senate and the House, be appointed to devise the most suitable
+manner of paying honor to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in
+peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
+
+Testimonials of sorrow were exhibited, and funeral orations and eulogies
+were delivered, throughout the United States. The Father of his Country
+slept in death, and an entire people mourned his departure!
+
+On assuming the duties of the Presidency, the elder Adams found the
+finances of the country in a condition of the most deplorable prostration.
+To sustain the government in this department, it was deemed indispensable
+to establish a system of direct taxation, by internal duties. This
+produced great dissatisfaction throughout the Union. An "alien law" was
+passed, which empowered the President to banish from the United States,
+any foreigner whom he should consider dangerous to the peace and safety of
+the country. And a "sedition law," imposing fine and imprisonment for "any
+false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the
+United States, or either house of Congress, or the President."
+
+These measures are not justly chargeable to John Adams. They were not
+recommended nor desired by him; but were brought forward and urged by Gen.
+Hamilton and his friends. Nevertheless upon Mr. Adams was heaped the odium
+they excited. The leading measures of his administration--the
+demonstration against France; the standing army; the direct taxation; the
+alien and sedition laws--all tended to injure his popularity with the mass
+of the people, and to destroy his prospects of a re-election to the
+presidency. The perplexities he was compelled to encounter during his
+administration, may be conceived on perusal of his language in a letter
+dated March 17, 1797:--
+
+"From the situation where I now am, I see a scene of ambition beyond all
+my former suspicions or imaginations; an emulation which will turn our
+government topsy-turvy. Jealousies and rivalries have been my theme, and
+checks and balances as their antidotes, till I am ashamed to repeat the
+words; but they never stared me in the face in such horrid forms as at
+present. I see how the thing is going. At the next election England will
+set up Jay or Hamilton, and France Jefferson, and all the corruption of
+Poland will be introduced; unless the American spirit should rise and say,
+we will have neither John Bull nor Louis Baboon."
+
+In 1800, the seat of government was removed to Washington. In taking
+possession of the President's house, Mr. Adams bestowed a benediction on
+it, which must ever meet with a response from all American hearts--"
+Before I end my letter, I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on
+this house, and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but
+honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!" A description of the house
+and the city, at that time, is furnished in a letter from Mrs. Adams to
+her daughter, written in November, 1800:--
+
+"I arrived here on Sunday last, and without meeting any accident worth
+noticing, except losing ourselves when we left Baltimore, and going eight
+or nine miles on the Frederick road, by which means we were obliged to go
+the other eight through the woods, where we wandered two hours without
+finding a guide or the path. Fortunately, a straggling black came up with
+us, and we engaged him as a guide to extricate us out of our difficulty;
+but woods are all you see, from Baltimore, until you reach the city, which
+is only so in name. Here and there is a small cot, without a glass window,
+interspersed among the forests, through which you travel miles without
+seeing any human being. * * * * * * * * * The house is made habitable, but
+there is not a single apartment finished, and all withinside, except the
+plastering, has been done since Briesier came. We have not the least
+fence, yard, or other convenience without, and the great unfinished
+audience-room I make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The
+principal stairs are not up, and will not be this winter. Six chambers are
+made comfortable; two are occupied by the President and Mr. Shaw; two
+lower rooms, one for a common parlor, and one for a levee room. Up stairs
+there is the oval room, which is designed for the drawing-room, and has
+the crimson furniture in it. It is a very handsome room now; but when
+completed, it will be beautiful."
+
+The presidential contest in 1800, was urged with a warmth and bitterness,
+by both parties, which has not been equalled in any election since that
+period. It was the first time two candidates ever presented themselves to
+the people as rival aspirants for the highest honor in their gift. Both
+were good men and true--both were worthy of the confidence of the country.
+But Mr. Adams, weighed down by the unpopularity of acts adopted during his
+administration, and suffering under the charge of being an enemy to
+revolutionary France, and a friend of monarchical England, was distanced
+and defeated by his competitor. Mr. Jefferson was elected the third
+President of the Republic, and was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1801.
+One of the last acts of John Adams, before retiring from the Presidency,
+was to recall his son from Berlin, that Mr. Jefferson might have no
+embarrassment in that direction.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MR. ADAMS' RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES--ELECTED TO THE MASSACHUSETTS
+SENATE--APPOINTED U. S. SENATOR--SUPPORTS MR. JEFFERSON--PROFESSOR OF
+RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRES--APPOINTED MINISTER TO RUSSIA.
+
+
+John Quincy Adams returned to the United States from his first foreign
+embassy, in 1801. During the stormy period of his father's administration,
+and the ensuing presidential canvass, he was fortunately absent from the
+country. Had he been at home, his situation would have been one of great
+delicacy. It can hardly be supposed he would have opposed his father's
+measures, or his reelection. Yet to have thrown his influence in their
+behalf, would have subjected him to the imputation of being moved by
+filial attachment rather than the convictions of duty. From this painful
+dilemma, he was saved by his foreign residence. He came home uncommitted
+to party measures, untrammelled by party tactics or predilections; and
+thus stood before the people, as he could wish to stand, perfectly
+unshackled, and ready to act as duty and conscience should direct.
+
+Arriving in the United States with distinguished honors gained by
+successful foreign diplomacy, Mr. Adams was not allowed to remain long in
+inactivity. In 1802 be was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts, from
+the Boston district. During his services in that body, he gave an
+indication of that independence, as a politician, which characterized him
+through life, by his opposition to a powerful combination of banking
+interests, which was effected among his immediate constituents. Although
+his opposition was unavailing, yet it clearly showed that the integrity of
+the man was superior to the policy of the mere politician. But higher
+honors awaited him.
+
+In 1803, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, by the
+Legislature of Massachusetts. Thus at the early age of thirty-six years,
+he had attained to the highest legislative body of the Union. Young in
+years, but mature in talent and experience, he took his seat amid the
+conscript fathers of the country, to act a part which soon drew upon him
+the eyes of the nation, both in admiration and in censure.
+
+The period of Mr. Adams' service in the United States Senate, was one in
+which the position and the interests of the country were surrounded by
+embarrassments and perils of the most threatening character. The party
+which had supported his father had become divided and defeated. Mr.
+Jefferson, elevated to the Presidency after a heated and angry contest,
+was an object of the dislike and suspicion of the Federalists, The
+conflicts of the belligerent nations in Europe, and the measures of
+foreign policy they severally adopted, not only affected the interests of
+the United States, but were added elements to inflame the party contests
+at home.
+
+In 1804, Bonaparte stepped from the Consul chamber to the throne of the
+French Empire. All Europe was bending to his giant rule. Great Britain
+alone, with characteristic and inherent stubbornness, had set itself as a
+rock against his ambitious aspirations, and prosecuted with unabated vigor
+its determined hostility to all his measures of trade and of conquest. In
+November, 1807, the British Government issued the celebrated "Orders in
+Council," forbidding all trade with France and her allies. This measure
+was met by Napoleon, in December, with his "Milan Decree," prohibiting
+every description of commerce with England or her colonies. Between these
+checks and counterchecks of European nations, the commerce of the United
+States was in peril of being swept entirely from the ocean.
+
+During most of this perplexed and trying period, Mr. J. Q. Adams retained
+his seat in the United States Senate. Although sent there by the suffrages
+of the Federal party, in the Massachusetts Legislature, yet he did not,
+and would not, act simply as a partisan. This in fact was a prominent
+characteristic in Mr. Adams throughout his entire life, and is the key
+which explains many of his acts otherwise inexplicable. His noble and
+patriotic spirit arose above the shackles of party. He loved the interests
+of his country, the happiness of Man, more than the success of a mere
+party. So far as the party with which he acted advocated measures which he
+conceived to be wise and healthful, he yielded his hearty and vigorous
+co-operation. But whenever it swerved from this line of integrity, his
+influence was thrown into the opposite scale. This was the rule of his
+long career. No persuasions or emoluments, no threats, no intimidations,
+could turn him from it, to the breadth of a hair. It was in consequence of
+this characteristic, that it has so frequently been said of Mr. Adams,
+that he was not a reliable party man. This was to a degree true. He was
+not reliable for any policy adopted simply to promote party interests, and
+secure party ends. But in regard to all measures which in his judgment
+would advance the welfare of the people, secure the rights of man, and
+elevate the race, no politician, no statesman the world has produced,
+could be more perfectly relied upon.
+
+This disposition to act right, whether with or against his party, was
+developed by the first vote he ever gave in a legislative body. While in
+the Massachusetts Senate, the Federalists were the dominant party. It was
+the custom in that State, to choose the whole of the Governor's Council
+from the party which had the majority in the Legislature. In May, 1802,
+Mr. Adams was desirous that a rule should be adopted more regardful of the
+rights of the minority. He accordingly proposed that several
+anti-Federalists should have seats in the Council of Gov. Strong, and gave
+his first vote to that measure.
+
+On a certain occasion, Mr. Adams was asked, "What are the recognized
+principles of politics?" He replied, that there were no principles in
+politics--there were recognized precepts, but they were bad ones. But,
+continued the inquirer, is not this a good one--"To seek the greatest
+good of the greatest number?" No, said he, that is the worst of all, for
+it looks specious, while it is ruinous. What shall become of the minority,
+in that case?  This is the only principle to seek--"the greatest good of
+all." [Footnote: Massachusetts Quarterly, June, 1849.]
+
+A few months after Mr. Adams' entrance into the Senate of the United
+States, a law was passed by Congress, at the suggestion of Mr. Jefferson,
+authorizing the purchase of Louisiana. Mr. Adams deemed this measure an
+encroachment on the Constitution of the United States, and opposed it on
+the ground of its unconstitutionality. He was one of six senators who
+voted against it. Yet when the measure had been legally consummated, he
+yielded it his support. In passing laws for the government of the
+territory thus obtained, the right of trial by jury was granted only in
+capital cases. Mr. Adams labored to have it extended to all criminal
+offences. Before the territory had a representative in Congress, the
+government proposed to levy a tax on the people for purposes of revenue.
+This attempt met the decided opposition of Mr. Adams. He insisted it would
+be an exercise of government, without the consent of the governed, which,
+to all intents, is a despotism.
+
+In 1805, he labored to have Congress pass a law levying a duty on the
+importation of slaves. This was the first public indication of his views
+on the subject of slavery. It was a premonition of the bold, unflinching,
+noble warfare against that institution, and of the advocacy of human
+freedom and human rights in the widest sense, which characterized the
+closing scenes of his remarkable career, and which will perpetuate his
+fame, when other acts of his life shall have passed from the remembrance
+of men. Although at that early day but little was said in regard to
+slavery, yet the young senator saw it was fraught with danger to the
+Union--conferring political power and influence on slaveholders, on
+principles false and pernicious, and calculated ultimately to distract the
+harmony of the country, and endanger the permanency of our free
+institutions. He labored, therefore, to check the increase of slave power,
+by the only means which, probably, appeared feasible at that time.
+
+But a crisis in his senatorial career at length arrived. The commerce of
+the United States had suffered greatly by "Orders in Council," and "Milan
+Decrees." Our ships were seized, conducted into foreign ports and
+confiscated, with their cargoes. American seamen were impressed by British
+cruisers, and compelled to serve in a foreign navy. The American frigate
+Philadelphia, while near the coast of the United States, on refusing to
+give up four men claimed to be British subjects, was fired into by the
+English man-of-war Leopard, and several of her crew killed and wounded.
+These events caused the greatest excitement in the United States.
+Petitions, memorials, remonstrances, were poured in upon Congress from
+every part of the Union. Mr. Jefferson endeavored by embassies,
+negotiations, and the exertion of every influence in his power, to arrest
+these destructive proceedings, and obtain a redress of grievances. But all
+was in vain. At length he determined on an embargo, as the only means of
+securing our commerce from the grasp of the unscrupulous mistress of the
+seas. An act to that effect was passed in Dec., 1807. This effectually
+prostrated what little foreign commerce had been left to the United
+States.
+
+In these proceedings Mr. Jefferson was stoutly opposed by the Federal
+party. Massachusetts, then the chief commercial State in the Union,
+resisted with its utmost influence the Embargo Act, as pre-eminently
+destructive to its welfare, and looked to its Senators and Representatives
+in Congress to urge an opposition to the extreme. What course should Mr.
+Adams adopt? On the one hand, personal friendship, the party which elected
+him to the Senate, the immediate interests of his constituents, called
+upon him to oppose the measures of the administration. On the other hand,
+more enlarged considerations presented themselves. The interest, the
+honor, the ultimate prosperity of the whole country--its reputation and
+influence in the eyes of the world--demanded that the Government should be
+supported in its efforts to check the aggressions of foreign nations, and
+establish the rights of American citizens. In such an alternative John
+Quincy Adams could not hesitate. Turning from all other considerations but
+a desire to promote the dignity and welfare of the Union, he threw
+himself, without reserve, into the ranks of the administration party, and
+labored zealously to second the measures of Mr. Jefferson.
+
+This act subjected Mr. Adams to the severest censure. He was charged with
+basely forsaking his party--with the most corrupt venality--with the low
+motive of seeking to promote ambitious longings and selfish ends. But
+those who made these charges in sincerity labored under an entire
+misapprehension of his character and principles of action. At this day,
+aided by the instructive history of his life, and by a perfect knowledge
+of his patriotism and devotion to truth and principle, as developed in his
+long and spotless career, it is clearly seen that in the event under
+consideration he but acted up to the high rule he had adopted, of making
+party and sectional considerations secondary to the honor and interest of
+the nation--an example which no pure and high-minded statesman can
+hesitate to follow.
+
+The Legislature of Massachusetts disapproved the course of Mr. Adams. By a
+small majority of Federal votes, it elected another person to take his
+place in the Senate at the expiration of his term, and passed resolutions
+instructing its Senators in Congress to oppose the measures of Mr.
+Jefferson. Mr. Adams could not, consistently with his views of duty, obey
+these instructions; and having no disposition to represent a body whose
+confidence he did not retain, he resigned his seat in the Senate, in
+March, 1808.
+
+Although Mr. Adams gave most of his days to the service of his country,
+yet he was fond of literary pursuits, and acquired, during his hours of
+relaxation from sterner duties, a vast fund of classic lore and useful
+learning. At an early day, he had become distinguished as a ripe scholar,
+and an impressive, dignified, and eloquent public speaker. His reputation
+for literary and scholastic attainments quite equalled his fame as a
+politician and statesman.
+
+In 1804, on the death of President Willard, Mr. Adams was urged by several
+influential individuals, to be a candidate for the presidency of Cambridge
+University. He declined the proffered honor. During the following year,
+however, he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, in
+that institution. He accepted the office, on condition that he should be
+allowed to discharge its duties at such times as his services in Congress
+would permit. His inaugural address, on entering the professorship, was
+delivered on the 12th of June, 1806. His lectures on rhetoric and oratory
+were very popular. They were attended by large crowds from Boston and the
+surrounding towns, in addition to the collegiate classes--a compliment
+which few of the professors since his day have received.
+
+Mr. Adams continued his connection with the University, delivering
+lectures and conducting exercises in declamation, until July, 1809. "It
+was at this time, and as a member of one of the younger classes at
+college, that I first saw Mr. Adams, and listened to his well-remembered
+voice from the chair of instruction; little anticipating, that after the
+lapse of forty years, my own humble voice would be heard, in the
+performance of this mournful office. Some who now hear me will recollect
+the deep interest with which these lectures were listened to, not merely
+by the youthful audience for which they were prepared, but by numerous
+voluntary hearers from the neighborhood. They formed an era in the
+University; and were, I believe, the first successful attempt, in this
+country, at this form of instruction in any department of literature. They
+were collected and published in two volumes, completing the theoretical
+part of the subject. I think it may be fairly said, that they will bear a
+favorable comparison with any treatise on the subject, at that time extant
+in our language. The standard of excellence, in every branch of critical
+learning, has greatly advanced in the last forty years, but these lectures
+may still be read with pleasure and instruction. Considered as a
+systematic and academical treatise upon a subject which constituted the
+chief part of the intellectual education of the Greeks and Romans, these
+lectures, rapidly composed as they were delivered, and not revised by the
+author before publication, are not to be regarded in the light of a
+standard performance. But let any statesman or jurist, even of the present
+day, in America or Europe--whose life, like Mr. Adams's, has been actively
+passed in professional and political engagements, at home and
+abroad--attempt, in the leisure of two or three summers--his mind filled
+with all the great political topics of the day--to prepare a full course
+of lectures on any branch of literature, to be delivered to a difficult
+and scrutinizing, though in part a youthful audience, and then trust them
+to the ordeal of the press, and he will be prepared to estimate the task
+which was performed by Mr. Adams." [Footnote: Edward Everett's Eulogy on
+the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams.]
+
+Mr. Adams's devotion to literary pursuits was destined to an early
+termination. On the 4th of March, 1809, Mr. Madison was inducted into the
+office of President of the United Slates. It was at that time far from
+being an enviable position. At home the country was rent into contending
+factions. Our foreign affairs were in a condition of the utmost
+perplexity, and evidently approaching a dangerous crisis. The murky clouds
+of war, which had for years overshadowed Europe, seemed rolling
+hitherward, filling the most sanguine and hopeful minds with deep
+apprehension. Russia, under its youthful Emperor Alexander, was rising to
+a prominent and influential position among the nations of Europe. Mr.
+Madison deemed it of great importance that the United States should be
+represented at that court by some individual eminent alike for talents,
+experience, and influence. John Quincy Adams was selected for the mission.
+In March, 1809, he was appointed Minister to Russia, and the summer
+following, sailed for St. Petersburgh.
+
+In the meantime, our relations with Great Britain became every day more
+dubious. While striving, in every honorable manner, to come to terms of
+reconciliation, President Madison was making rapid preparations for war.
+The people of the United States, deprived by the non-intercourse act of
+the cheap productions of England, began to turn their attention and
+capital to domestic manufactures. At length the American Government
+demanded peremptorily, that the restrictions of Great Britain and France
+on our commerce should be abrogated; war being the alternative of a
+refusal. The French emperor gave satisfactory assurances that the Berlin
+decree should be withdrawn. The English government hesitated, equivocated,
+and showed evident disinclination to take any decided step.
+
+"In this doubtful state of connexion between America and England, an
+accidental collision took place between vessels of the respective
+countries, tending much to inflame and widen the existing differences. An
+English sloop-of-war, the Little Belt, commanded by Capt. Bingham,
+descried a ship off the American coast, and made sail to come up with it;
+but finding it a frigate, and dubious of its nation, he retired. The
+other, which proved to be American, the President, under Capt. Rogers,
+pursued in turn. Both captains hailed nearly together; and both, instead
+of replying, hailed again; and from words, as it were, came to blows,
+without explanation. Capt. Bingham lost upwards of thirty men, and his
+ship suffered severely. A Court of Inquiry was ordered on the conduct of
+Capt. Rogers, which decided that it had been satisfactorily proved to the
+court, that Capt. Rogers hailed the Little Belt first, that his hail was
+not satisfactorily answered, that the Little Belt fired the first gun, and
+that it was without previous provocation or justifiable cause." [Footnote:
+Lives of the Presidents.]
+
+Several attempts were made after this, to preserve the peace of the two
+countries, but in vain. England, it is true, withdrew her obnoxious Orders
+in Council. It was, however, too late. Before intelligence of this repeal
+reached the shores of the United States, war was declared by Congress, on
+the 18th of June, 1812.
+
+It was a popular war. Although strenuously opposed by portions of the
+Eastern States, as destructive to their commerce, yet with the mass of the
+people throughout the Union, it was deemed justifiable and indispensible.
+A long series of insults and injuries on the part of Great Britain--the
+seizure and confiscation of our ships and cargoes; the impressing of our
+seamen, under circumstances of the most irritating description; and the
+adoption of numerous measures to the injury of our interests--had fully
+prepared the public mind in the United States, with the exception of a
+small minority, to enter upon this war with zeal and enthusiasm.
+
+With occasional reverses, general success attended our arms in every
+direction. On land and on sea, the American eagle led to victory. The
+combatants were worthy of each other. Of the same original stock--of the
+same stern, unyielding material--their contests were bloody and
+destructive in the extreme. But the younger nation, inspirited by a sense
+of wrongs endured, and of the justness of its cause, bore away the palm,
+and plucked from the brow of its more aged competitor many a laurel yet
+green from the ensanguined fields of Europe. In scores of hotly-contested
+battles, the British lion, unused as it was to cower before a foe, was
+compelled to "lick the dust" in defeat. At York, at Chippewa, at Fort
+Erie, at Lundy's Lane, at New Orleans, on Lake Champlain, on Lake Erie,
+on the broad ocean, Great Britain and the world were taught lessons of
+American valor, skill, and energy, which ages will not obliterate.
+
+This war, though prosecuted at the expense of many valuable lives, and of
+a vast public debt, was, unquestionably, highly beneficial to the United
+States. It convinced all doubters that our government was abundantly able
+to resent aggressions, and to maintain its rights against the assaults of
+any nation on earth. This reputation has been of great service in
+protecting our commerce, and commanding respect for our flag, throughout
+the world. But the chief benefit of the war was the development of our
+internal resources, which, after all, form the great fountain of the
+wealth, strength, and permanence of a nation. Deprived by the embargo, the
+non-intercourse act, and the ensuing hostilities, of all foreign
+importation of goods, the American people were compelled to supply
+themselves by their own industry and ingenuity, with those articles for
+which they had always before been dependent on their transatlantic
+neighbors. Thus was laid the foundation of that system of domestic
+manufactures which is destined to make the United States the greatest
+productive mart among men, and to bring into its lap the wealth of the
+world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+MR. ADAMS' ARRIVAL AT ST. PETERSBURG--HIS LETTERS TO HIS SON ON
+THE BIBLE--HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS--RUSSIA OFFERS MEDIATION
+BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES--PROCEEDS TO
+GHENT TO NEGOTIATE FOR PEACE--VISITS PARIS--APPOINTED MINISTER
+AT ST. JAMES--ARRIVES IN LONDON.
+
+Mr. Adams arrived at St. Petersburg, as Minister Plenipotentiary from the
+United States, in the autumn of 1809. Twenty-eight years before, while a
+lad of fourteen, he was at the same place, as private secretary to Mr.
+Dana, the American Minister. The promising boy returned to the northern
+capital a mature man, ripe in experience, wisdom, patriotism, and prepared
+to serve his country in the highest walks of diplomacy. So truly had the
+far-seeing Washington prophesied in 1795:--"I shall be much mistaken if,
+in as short a time as can well be expected, he is not found at the head of
+the diplomatic corps, be the government administered by whomsoever the
+people may choose!"
+
+The United Slates, though but little known in Russia at that period, was
+still looked upon with favor, as a nation destined, in due time, to exert
+a great influence upon the affairs of the world. Mr. Adams was received
+with marked respect at the Court of St. Petersburg. His familiarity with
+the French and German languages--the former the diplomatic language of
+Europe--his literary acquirements, his perfect knowledge of the political
+relations of the civilized world, his plain appearance, and republican
+simplicity of manners, in the midst of the gorgeous embassies of other
+nations, enabled him to make a striking and favorable impression on the
+Emperor Alexander and his Court. The Emperor, charmed by his varied
+qualities, admitted him to terms of personal intimacy seldom granted to
+the most favored individuals.
+
+During his residence in Russia, the death of Judge Cushing caused a
+vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. President
+Madison nominated Mr. Adams to the distinguished office. The nomination
+was confirmed by the Senate, but he declined its acceptance.
+
+A circumstance occurred at this time, which attracted the attention of Mr.
+Adams. The Russian Minister of the Interior, then advanced in years,
+having received many valuable presents while in office, became troubled
+with scruples of conscience, in regard to the disposal he should make of
+them. He at length calculated the value of all his gifts, and paid the sum
+into the imperial treasury. This transaction made a deep impression on Mr.
+Adams, and probably led him to the resolution of never accepting gifts. In
+order to act with that freedom of bias which he deemed indispensable to
+the faithful discharge of public duty, he endeavored to avoid, as far as
+possible, laying himself under obligations to any man. When a certain
+bookseller once sent him an elegant copy of the Scriptures, he kept the
+book, but returned its full equivalent in money.
+
+While sojourning at St. Petersburg, Mr. Adams wrote a series of letters to
+a son at school in Massachusetts, on the value of the Bible, and the
+importance of its daily perusal. Since his decease they have been
+published in a volume, entitled "Letters of John Quincy Adams to his son,
+on the Bible and its teachings." "Their purpose is the inculcation of a
+love and reverence for the Holy Scriptures, and a delight in their perusal
+and study. Throughout his long life, Mr. Adams was himself a daily and
+devout reader of the Scriptures, and delighted in comparing and
+considering them in the various languages with which he was familiar,
+hoping thereby to acquire a nicer and clearer appreciation of their
+meaning. The Bible was emphatically his counsel and monitor through life,
+and the fruits of its guidance are seen in the unsullied character which
+he bore, through the turbid waters of political contention, to his final
+earthly rest. Though long and fiercely opposed and contemned in life he
+left no man behind him who would wish to fix a stain on the name he has
+inscribed so high on the roll of his country's most gifted and illustrious
+sons. The intrinsic value of these letters, their familiar and lucid
+style, their profound and comprehensive views, their candid and reverent
+spirit, must win for them a large measure of the public attention and
+esteem. But, apart from even this, the testimony so unconsciously borne by
+their pure-minded and profoundly learned author, to the truth and
+excellence of the Christian faith and records, will not be lightly
+regarded. It is no slight testimonial to the verity and worth of
+Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation, the great mass of
+those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom, integrity, and
+philanthropy, have recognized and reverenced, in Jesus of Nazareth, the
+Son of the living God. To the names of Augustine, Xavier, Fenelon,
+Milton, Newton, Locke, Lavater, Howard, Chateaubriand, and their
+thousands of compeers in Christian faith, among the world's wisest and
+noblest, it is not without pride that the American may add, from among his
+countrymen, those of such men as WASHINGTON, JAY, PATRICK HENRY, and JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS." [Footnote: Preface to "Letters of John Quincy Adams to his
+Son, on the Bible and its Teachings."]
+
+Mr. Adams was a practical Christian. This is proved by his spotless life,
+his strict honesty and integrity, his devotion to duty, his faithful
+obedience to the dictates of conscience, at whatever sacrifice, his
+reverence of God, of Christ, his respect for religion and its
+institutions, and recognition of its claims and responsibilities. Although
+a Unitarian [Footnote: Mr. Adams was a member of the Unitarian Church in
+Quincy, Mass., at his death.] in his belief of doctrines, yet he was no
+sectarian. In religion, as in politics, he was independent of parties. He
+would become linked to no sect in such manner as to prevent him from
+granting his countenance and assistance wherever he thought proper. He was
+a frequent attendant at Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches, and was
+liberal in his contributions to these and other denominations; it being
+his great desire to aid in building up Christianity, and not a sect.
+
+The influence which Mr. Adams had obtained at St. Petersburg, with the
+Emperor and his Court, was turned to the best account. It laid the
+foundation of those amicable relations which have ever characterized the
+intercourse of that government with the United States. To this source,
+also, is unquestionably to be attributed the offer, by the Emperor
+Alexander, of mediation between Great Britain and the United States. This
+offer was accepted by the American Government, and Mr. Adams, in
+connection with Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard, was appointed by the
+President to take charge of the negotiation. The latter gentlemen joined
+Mr. Adams at St. Petersburg, in July, 1813. Conferences were held by the
+Commissioners with Count Romanzoff, the Chancellor of the Russian Empire,
+with a view to open negotiations. The British Government, however, refused
+to treat under the mediation of Russia; but proposed at the same time to
+meet American Commissioners either at London or Gottenburg. Messrs.
+Gallatin and Bayard withdrew from St. Petersburg in January, 1814,
+leaving Mr. Adams in the discharge of his duties as resident Minister.
+
+The proposition of the British Ministry to negotiate for peace, at London
+or Gottenburg was accepted by the United States. Mr. Adams and Messrs.
+Bayard, Clay, Russell, and Gallatin, were appointed Commissioners, and
+directed to proceed to Gottenburg for that purpose. Mr. Adams received
+his instructions in April, 1814; and as soon as preparations for departure
+could be made, took passage for Stockholm. After repeated delays, on
+account of the difficulties of navigation at that early season in the
+northern seas, he arrived at that city on the 25th of May. Learning there
+that the place for the meeting of the Commissioners had been changed to
+Ghent, in Belgium, Mr. Adams proceeded to Gottenburg. From thence he
+embarked on board an American sloop-of-war, which had conveyed Messrs.
+Clay and Russell from the United States, and landing at Texel, proceeded
+immediately to Ghent, where he arrived on the 24th of June.
+
+In the ensuing negotiation, Mr. Adams was placed at the head of the
+American Commissioners. They were men of unsurpassed talents and skill, in
+whose hands neither the welfare nor the honor of the United States could
+suffer. In conducting this negotiation, they exhibited an ability, a tact,
+an understanding of international law, and a knowledge of the best
+interests of their country, which attracted the favorable attention both
+of Europe and America. Their "Notes" with the British Commissioners,
+exhibited a dignified firmness and manly moderation, with a power of
+argument, and force of reasoning, which highly elevated their reputation,
+and that of their country, in the estimation of European statesmen. The
+Marquis of Wellesley declared in the British House of Lords, that, "in
+his opinion the American Commissioners had shown the most astonishing
+superiority over the British, during the whole of the correspondence."
+Their despatches to the Government at home, describing and explaining the
+progress of the negotiation in its several stages, gave the highest
+satisfaction to the people of the United States. It was declared in the
+public prints, that they sustained the honor of the Union as ably at
+Ghent as the patriotism and bravery of its defenders had been established
+by its seamen on the ocean, and its troops in their battles with
+"Wellington's Invincibles." A good share of these encomiums of right
+belongs to Mr. Adams, who, from his knowledge of foreign affairs, and
+experience in diplomacy, as well as acknowledged talents, took a leading
+part in the negotiations.
+
+The American commissioners were treated with marks of highest respect, by
+the citizens of Ghent, and the public authorities of that town. On the
+anniversary of the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts, at Ghent, they were
+unanimously elected members of the institution, and were invited to attend
+and unite in the exercises of the occasion. An oration on the objects of
+the institution was delivered. In the evening, a sumptuous banquet was
+served up to a numerous company. After the removal of the cloth, among the
+toasts given, was the following, by the Intendant of Ghent:--
+
+"Our distinguished guests and fellow-members, the American Ministers: May
+they succeed in making an honorable peace, to secure the liberty and
+independence of their country."
+
+This sentiment was received with immense applause. The band struck up
+"Hail Columbia," and the company was filled with enthusiasm. It was some
+minutes before the tumult sufficiently subsided to admit of a response.
+Mr. Adams then arose, and, in behalf of the American Legation, returned
+thanks for the very flattering manner in which they had been treated by
+the municipality of Ghent, and particularly for the unexpected honor
+conferred upon them by the Academy. After making some pertinent remarks on
+the importance and usefulness of the Fine Arts, he concluded by offering
+as a toast--"The Intendant of the city of Ghent."
+
+The British Commissioners were Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and Wm.
+Adams. The negotiations opened dubiously. The demands of the British
+Ministers were at first of such a character, that it was impossible to
+comply with them, with any regard to the honor or welfare of the United
+States. They insisted that the line separating the United States from the
+Canadas, should run on the southern borders of all the lakes from Ontario
+to Superior--that the American Government should keep no armed force on
+these lakes, nor maintain any military posts on their borders, while the
+British should have the privilege of establishing such posts wherever they
+thought proper, on the southern shores of the lakes and connecting rivers,
+and maintaining a navy on their waters--that a large part of the district
+of Maine should be relinquished and ceded to England, to permit a direct
+route of communication between Halifax and Quebec--that the right of
+search should be granted to British ships-of-war--together with many
+other terms equally unacceptable.
+
+The letters of the American Commissioners to the Government at home, in
+the early stages of the proceedings, were couched in desponding tones.
+They gave it as their opinion that no terms of peace could be agreed upon.
+But the demands of the English Plenipotentiaries were met in a manner so
+decided, and reasons were offered for non-compliance so cogent and
+incontrovertible, that they were compelled to recede, and come to terms of
+a more reasonable description. Moreover the British nation was heartily
+sick of foreign wars, which plunged the Government into debt, sacrificed
+the lives of its subjects, crippled their manufactories, and secured them,
+in fact, nothing! At length, after a protracted negotiation of six months,
+articles of peace were signed by the British and American Commissioners,
+on the 24th of December, 1814.
+
+The announcement of this event, at Ghent, was in a manner somewhat
+peculiar. Mr. Todd, one of the Secretaries of the American Commissioners,
+and son-in-law of President Madison, had invited several gentlemen,
+Americans and others, to take refreshments with him on the 24th of
+December. At noon, after having spent some time in pleasant conversation,
+the refreshments entered, and Mr. Todd said,--"It is 12 o'clock. Well,
+gentlemen, I announce to you that peace has been made and signed between
+America and England." In a few moments, Messrs. Gallatin, Clay, Carroll
+and Hughes entered, and confirmed the annunciation. This intelligence was
+received with a burst of joy by all present. The news soon spread through
+the town, and gave general satisfaction to the citizens.
+
+At Paris, the intelligence was hailed with acclamations. In the evening
+the theatres resounded with cries of "God save the Americans."
+
+In the United States the news of peace spread with the speed of the wind.
+Everywhere it excited the most lively emotions of joy. Processions,
+orations, bonfires, illuminations, attested the gratification of the
+people, and showed that, notwithstanding the general success which had
+attended our arms, they viewed peace as one of the highest blessings a
+nation can enjoy.
+
+Recognizing in this important event the hand of a wise and gracious
+overruling Providence, the hearts of a great Christian nation turned in
+gratitude toward God. President Madison issued the following proclamation
+for a day of thanksgiving:--
+
+"The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States have, by a
+joint resolution, signified their desire that a day may be recommended, to
+be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity,
+as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God,
+for his great goodness, manifested in restoring to them the blessings of
+peace.
+
+"No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of
+the Great Disposer of events, and of the destiny of nations, than the
+people of the United Slates. His kind providence originally conducted them
+to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allowed for the great
+family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under all the
+difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their early days.
+Under his fostering care, their habits, their sentiments and their
+pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
+independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it was
+attained, they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of his benign
+interposition. During the interval which succeeded, he reared them into
+the strength, and endowed them with the resources, which have enabled them
+to assert their national rights, and to enhance their national character,
+in another arduous conflict, which is now happily terminated by a peace
+and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to the same
+Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those
+privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly
+enjoyed in this favored land.
+
+"It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the
+restoration of the blessings of peace, that I now recommend that the
+second Thursday in April next, be set apart as a day on which the people
+of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite their
+hearts and their voices, in a free-will offering, to their Heavenly
+Benefactor, of their homage of thanksgiving and their songs of praise."
+
+Before leaving Ghent, the American Commissioners gave a public dinner to
+the British Ambassadors, at which the Intendant of Ghent, and numerous
+staff officers of the Hanoverian service, were present. Everything
+indicated that the most perfect reconciliation had taken place between the
+two nations. Lord Gambier had arisen to give, as the first toast, "The
+United States of North America," but he was prevented by the courtesy of
+Mr. Adams, who gave "His Majesty, the King of England"--on which the music
+struck up "God save the King." Lord Gambier gave as the second toast,
+"The United States of North America," and the music played "Hail Columbia."
+Count H. Von Sheinhuyer presented as a toast--"The Pacificators of the
+States--May their union contribute to the happiness of the Department
+which is confided to my government; and may their Excellencies communicate
+to their Governments the lively interest which those under me take in
+their reconciliation." Mr. Adams and Lord Gambier both begged the
+Intendant to certify to the city of Ghent the gratitude of the
+Ministers, for the attention which the inhabitants had shown them during
+their residence in their midst.
+
+Having concluded their labors at Ghent by signing the treaty of peace,
+Mr. Adams, together with Messrs. Albert Gallatin and Henry Clay, was
+directed to proceed to London, for the purpose of entering into
+negotiations for a treaty of commerce with Great Britain. Before leaving
+the continent, Mr. Adams visited Paris, where he witnessed the return of
+Napoleon from Elbe, and his meteoric career during the Hundred Days. Here
+he was joined in March, 1815, by his family, after a long and perilous
+journey from St. Petersburg.
+
+On the 25th of May, Mr. Adams arrived in London and joined Messrs.
+Gallatin and Clay, who had already entered upon the preliminaries of the
+proposed commercial convention with Great Britain. In the mean time, Mr.
+Adams had received official notice of his appointment as Minister to the
+Court of St. James. On the 3d of July, 1815, the convention for regulating
+the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain was
+concluded, and duly signed. It was afterwards ratified by both
+Governments, and has formed the basis of commerce and trade between the
+two countries, to the present time. At the conclusion of these
+negotiations, Messrs. Gallatin and Clay returned to the United States, and
+Mr. Adams remained in London, in his capacity as resident Minister.
+
+Thus had the prediction of Washington been fulfilled. In "as short a time
+as could well be expected," John Quincy Adams, as the well-merited reward
+of faithful services, had attained to the head of the Diplomatic Corps of
+the United States. His career had been singularly successful; and his
+elevation to the highest foreign stations received the general approbation
+of his countrymen. His simple habits, his plain appearance, his untiring
+industry, his richly stored mind, his unbending integrity, his general
+intercourse and correspondence with foreign courts and diplomatists of the
+greatest distinction, all tended to elevate, in a high degree, the
+American character, in the estimation of European nations.
+
+The impression he made in the most eminent circles during his residence in
+London, as a statesman of unsurpassed general information, and critical
+knowledge of the politics of the world, was retained for years afterwards.
+Mr. Rush, who was subsequently Minister to Great Britain, in an account of
+a dinner party at Lord Castlereagh's, notes a corroborating incident: "At
+table, I had on my left the Saxon Minister, Baron Just. * * * * * * He
+inquired of me for Mr. Adams, whom he had known well, and of whom he spoke
+highly. He said that he knew the politics of all Europe." [Footnote:
+Rush's Residence at the Court of London.]
+
+"It was while Mr. Adams was Minister of the United States in London, that
+it was my personal good fortune to be admitted to his intimacy and
+friendship. Being then in London on private business, and having some
+previous acquaintance with Mr. Adams, I found in his house an ever kind
+welcome, and in his intercourse and conversation unfailing attraction and
+improvement. Accustomed as he had been from earliest youth to the society
+of the most eminent persons in Europe, alike in station and in ability,
+Mr. Adams never lost the entire simplicity of his own habits and
+character. Under an exterior of, at times, almost repulsive coldness,
+dwelt a heart as warm, sympathies as quick, and affections as overflowing,
+as ever animated any bosom. His tastes, too, were all refined. Literature
+and art were familiar and dear to him, and hence it was that his society
+was at once so agreeable and so improving. At his hospitable board, I have
+listened to disquisitions from his lips on poetry, especially the dramas
+of Shakspeare, music, painting, sculpture--of rare excellence, and
+untiring interest. The extent of his knowledge, indeed, and its accuracy,
+in all branches, were not less remarkable than the complete command which
+he appeared to possess over all his varied stores of learning and
+information. A critical scholar, alike in the dead languages, in French,
+in German, in Italian, not less than in English--he could draw at will
+from the wealth of all these tongues to illustrate any particular topic,
+or to explain any apparent difficulty. There was no literary work of merit
+in any of these languages, of which he could not render a satisfactory
+account; there was no fine painting or statue, of which he did not know
+the details and the history; there was not even an opera, or a celebrated
+musical composer, of which or of whom he could not point out the
+distinguishing merits and the chief compositions. Yet he was a
+hard-working, assiduous man of business, in his particular vocation, and a
+more regular, punctual, comprehensive, voluminous diplomatic
+correspondence than his no country can probably boast of; and it is
+thought the more necessary to note this fact, because sometimes an opinion
+prevails that graver pursuits must necessarily exclude attention to what
+used to be called the "humanities" of education--those ornamental and
+graceful acquirements, which, as Mr. Adams well proved, not only are not
+inconsistent with, but greatly adorn, the weightier matters of the law and
+of diplomacy. I could dwell with much satisfaction upon the memory and
+incidents of the days to which I am now adverting, but am admonished, by
+the length to which these remarks have already extended, that I may not
+loiter." [Footnote: Eulogy on John Quincy Adams, by Charles King.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+MR. ADAMS APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE--ARRIVES IN THE UNITED
+STATES--PUBLIC DINNERS IN NEW YORK AND BOSTON--TAKES UP HIS RESIDENCE IN
+WASHINGTON--DEFENDS GEN. JACKSON IN THE FLORIDA INVASION--RECOGNITION OF
+SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE--GREEK REVOLUTION.
+
+
+James Madison, after serving his country eight years as President, in a
+most perilous period of its history, retired to private life, followed by
+the respect and gratitude of the people of the United States. He was
+succeeded by James Monroe, who was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1817.
+
+Mr. Monroe was a politician of great moderation.  It was his desire, on
+entering the presidency, to heal the unhappy dissensions which had
+distracted the country from the commencement of its government, and
+conciliate and unite the conflicting political parties. In forming his
+cabinet, he consulted eminent individuals of different parties, in various
+sections of the Union, expressing these views. Among others, he addressed
+Gen. Jackson, who, on account of his successful military career, was then
+rising rapidly into public notice. In his reply the general remarked:--
+
+"Everything depends on the selection of your ministry. In every selection,
+party and party feeling should be avoided. Now is the time to exterminate
+that monster, called party spirit. By selecting characters most
+conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, without any
+regard to party, you will go far, if not entirely, to eradicate those
+feelings, which on former occasions, threw so many obstacles in the way of
+government, and, perhaps, have the pleasure and honor of uniting a people
+heretofore politically divided. The Chief Magistrate of a great and
+powerful nation, should never indulge in party feelings."
+
+Admirable advice! Sentiments worthy an exalted American statesman! The
+President of a vast Republic, should indeed know nothing of the interest
+of party in contradistinction to the interest of the whole people; and
+should exercise his power, his patronage, and his influence, not to
+strengthen factions, and promote the designs of political demagogues, but
+to develop and nourish internal resources, the only sinews of national
+prosperity, and diffuse abroad sentiments of true patriotism, liberality,
+and philanthropy. No suggestions more admirable could have been made by
+Gen. Jackson, and none could have been more worthy the consideration of
+Mr. Monroe and his successors in the presidential chair.
+
+In carrying out his plans of conciliation, President Monroe selected John
+Quincy Adams for the responsible post of Secretary of State. Mr. Adams had
+never been an active partizan. In his career as Senator, both in
+Massachusetts and in Washington, during Mr. Jefferson's administration, he
+had satisfactorily demonstrated his ability to rise above party
+considerations, in the discharge of great and important duties. And his
+long absence from the country had kept him free from personal, party, and
+sectional bias, and peculiarly fitted him to take the first station in the
+cabinet of a President aiming to unite his countrymen in fraternal bonds
+of political amity.
+
+Referring to this appointment, Mr. Monroe wrote Gen. Jackson as follows,
+under date of March 1, 1817:--"I shall take a person for the Department of
+State from the eastward; and Mr. Adams, by long service in our diplomatic
+concerns appearing to be entitled to the preference, supported by his
+acknowledged abilities and integrity, his nomination will go to the
+Senate." Gen. Jackson, in his reply, remarks:--"I have no hesitation in
+saying you have made the best selection to fill the Department of State
+that could be made. Mr. Adams, in the hour of difficulty, will be an able
+helpmate, and I am convinced his appointment will afford general
+satisfaction." This prediction was well founded. The consummate ability
+exhibited by Mr. Adams in foreign negotiations had elevated him to a high
+position in the estimation of his countrymen. His selection for the State
+Department was received with very general satisfaction throughout the
+Union.
+
+On receiving notice of his appointment to this responsible office, Mr.
+Adams, with his family, embarked for the United States, on board the
+packet-ship Washington, and landed in New York on the 6th of August, 1817.
+
+A few days after his arrival, a public dinner was given Mr. Adams, in
+Tammany Hall, New York. The room was elegantly decorated. In the centre
+was a handsome circle of oak leaves, roses, and flags--the whole
+representing, with much effect, our happy Union--and from the centre of
+which, as from her native woods, appeared our eagle, bearing in her beak
+this impressive scroll:--
+
+  "Columbia, great Republic, thou art blest,
+  While Empires droop, and Monarchs sink to rest."
+
+Gov. De Witt Clinton, the Mayor of New York, and about two hundred
+citizens of the highest respectability, sat down to the table. Among other
+speeches made on the occasion, was the following from an English
+gentleman, a Mr. Fearon, of London:--
+
+"As several gentlemen have volunteered songs, I would beg leave to offer a
+sentiment, which I am sure will meet the hearty concurrence of all
+present. But, previous to which, I desire to express the high satisfaction
+which this day's entertainment has afforded me. Though a native of Great
+Britain, and but a few days in the United States, I am for the first time
+in my life in a free country, surrounded by free men; and when I look at
+the inscription which decorates your eagle, I rejoice that I have been
+destined to see this day.  A great number of the enlightened portion of my
+countrymen advocate your cause--admire your principles. And though we
+have, unfortunately, been engaged in a war, I trust the result has taught
+wisdom to both parties. In your political institutions you have set a
+noble example, which, if followed throughout the world, will rescue
+mankind from the dominion of those tyrants who jeer at the destruction
+which they produce--
+
+  'Like the moonbeams on the blasted heath,
+  Mocking its desolation.'
+
+"Gentlemen, in conclusion, I beg to express the delight which I feel, and
+propose to you as a toast--May the United States be an example to the
+world; and may civil and religious liberty cover the earth, as the waters
+do the channels of the deep."
+
+A public dinner was also given Mr. Adams on his arrival in Boston. Mr.
+Gray presided, and Messrs. Otis, Blake, and Mason, acted as Vice
+Presidents. His father, the venerable ex-President John Adams, was present
+as a guest. Among other toasts given on the occasion, were the
+following:--
+
+"The United States.--May our public officers, abroad and at home, continue
+to be distinguished for integrity, talents, and patriotism."
+
+"The Commissioners at Ghent.--The negotiations for peace have been
+declared, in the British House of Lords, to wear the stamp of American
+superiority."
+
+"American Manufactures.--A sure and necessary object for the security of
+American independence."
+
+This occasion must have been one of great interest to the patriarch John
+Adams, then more than four-score years of age. Nearly forty years before,
+he had said of his son:--"He behaves like a man!" That son, in the prime
+of his days, had recently been called from foreign service, where he had
+obtained accumulated honors, to fill the highest station in the gift of
+the Executive of his country. The people of two continents would now unite
+with the venerable sage, in repeating the declaration--"He behaves like a
+man!" The patriarch stood upon the verge of the grave. But as the sun of
+his existence was gently and calmly sinking beneath the horizon, lo! its
+beams were reflected in their pristine brightness by another orb, born
+from its bosom, which was steadily ascending to the zenith of earthly
+fame!
+
+John Quincy Adams took up his residence at Washington, and entered upon
+his duties as Secretary of State, in September, 1817.
+
+During the eight years of President Monroe's administration, Mr. Adams
+discharged the duties of the state department, with a fidelity and success
+which received not only the unqualified approbation of the President, but
+of the whole country. To him that office was no sinecure. His labors were
+incessant. He spared no pains to qualify himself to discuss, with
+consummate skill, whatever topics legitimately claimed his attention. The
+President, the cabinet, the people, imposed implicit trust in his ability
+to promote the interests of the nation in all matters of diplomacy, and
+confided unreservedly in his pure American feelings and love of country.
+Perfectly familiar as he was with the political condition of the world,
+Mr. Monroe entrusted him, without hesitation, with the management of the
+foreign policy of the Government, during his administration.
+
+In the autumn of 1817, the Seminole and a portion of the Creek Indians
+commenced depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama. Troops
+were sent to reduce them, under Gen. Gaines. His force being too weak to
+bring them to subjection, Gen. Jackson was ordered to take the field with
+a more numerous army, with which he overran the Indian country. Believing
+it necessary to enter Florida, then a Spanish territory, for the more
+effectual subjugation of the Indians, he did not hesitate to pursue them
+thither. The Spanish authorities protested against the invasion of their
+domains, and offered some opposition. Gen. Jackson persisted, and in the
+result, took possession of St. Marks and Pensacola, and sent the Spanish
+authorities and troops to Havana.
+
+Among the prisoners taken in this expedition, were a Scotchman and an
+Englishman, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister. They were British subjects,
+but were charged with supplying the Indians with arms and munitions of
+war; stirring them up against the whites, and acting as spies. On these
+charges they were tried by a court martial, of which Gen. Gaines was
+President--found guilty--condemned to death, and executed on the 27th of
+April, 1818.
+
+These transactions of Gen. Jackson caused great excitement throughout the
+United States, and subjected him to no little blame. The subject excited
+much debate in Congress. A resolution censuring him for his summary
+proceedings was introduced, but voted down by a large majority. In Mr.
+Monroe's cabinet, there was a strong feeling against Gen. Jackson. The
+President, and all the members, with a single exception, were disposed to
+hold him responsible for having transcended his orders. Hon. Wm. H.
+Crawford, who was in Mr. Monroe's cabinet at that time, in a letter to
+Mr. Forsyth, says:--"Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the cabinet was, that
+Gen. Jackson should be punished in some form, or reprimanded in some
+form."
+
+Mr. Adams alone vindicated Gen. Jackson. He insisted that inasmuch as the
+Government had ordered him to pursue the enemy into Florida, if necessary,
+they were responsible for the acts of the American general, in the
+exercise of the discretionary power with which he had been clothed.
+Several cabinet meetings were held on the subject, in July, 1818, in which
+the whole matter was thoroughly discussed. Mr. Adams succeeded at length
+in bringing the President into the adoption of his views, which Mr. Monroe
+substantially embodied in his next annual message to Congress.
+
+The intelligence of the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, excited
+the highest indignation in England. The people viewed it as a violation of
+the rights of British subjects, and an insult to their nation, and were
+ready to rush to war.  Lord Castlereagh declared to Mr. Rush, the
+American Minister, that had the English cabinet but held up a finger, war
+would have been declared against the United States. But so able and
+convincing were the arguments which Mr. Adams directed Mr. Rush to lay
+before the British Ministers, in defence of the proceedings of Gen.
+Jackson, that they became convinced there was no just cause of war between
+the two countries, and exerted their influence against any movement in
+that direction.
+
+On the 22nd of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded at Washington,
+between the United States and Spain, by which East and West Florida, with
+the adjacent islands, were ceded to the Union. The negotiations which
+resulted in the consummation of the treaty, were conducted by Mr. Adams
+and Luis de Onis the Spanish Ambassador. This treaty was very
+advantageous to the United States. It brought to a close a controversy
+with Spain, of many years' standing, which had defied all the exertions of
+former administrations to adjust, and placed our relations with that
+country on the most amicable footing. In effecting this reconciliation,
+Mr. Adams deserved and received a high share of credit.
+
+The recognition of the independence of the Spanish South American
+Provinces, by the Government of the United States, took place during Mr.
+Adams's administration of the State Department. The honor of first
+proposing this recognition, in the Congress of the United States, and of
+advocating it with unsurpassed eloquence and zeal, belongs to the
+patriotic Henry Clay. Mainly by his influence, the House of
+Representatives, in 1820, passed the following resolutions:--
+
+"Resolved, That the House of Representatives participate with the people
+of the United States, in the deep interest which they feel for the success
+of the Spanish Provinces of South America, which are struggling to
+establish their liberty and independence.
+
+"Resolved, That this House will give its constitutional support to the
+President of the United States, whenever he may deem it expedient to
+recognize the sovereignty and independence of any of said Provinces."
+
+Mr. Adams at first hesitated on this subject. Not that he was opposed to
+the diffusion of the blessings of freedom to the oppressed. No man was a
+more ardent lover of liberty, or was more anxious that its institutions
+should be established throughout the earth, at the earliest practicable
+moment. But he had many and serious doubts whether the people of the South
+American Provinces were capable of originating and maintaining an
+enlightened self-government.  There was a lack of general intelligence
+among the people--a want of an enlarged and enlightened understanding of
+the principles of rational freedom--which led him to apprehend that their
+attempts at self-government would for a long season, at least, result in
+the reign of faction and anarchy, rather than true republican principles.
+The subsequent history of these countries--the divisions and contentions,
+the revolutions and counter-revolutions, which have rent them asunder, and
+deluged them in blood--clearly show that Mr. Adams but exercised a
+far-seeing intelligence in entertaining these doubts. Nevertheless, as
+they had succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke, and had, in fact,
+achieved their independence, Mr. Adams would not throw any impediment in
+their way. Trusting that his fears as to their ability for self-government
+might be groundless, he gave his influence to the recognizing of their
+independence by the United States.
+
+In 1821 the Greek revolution broke out. The people of that classic land,
+after enduring ages of the most brutal and humiliating oppression from the
+Turks, nobly resolved to break the chains of the Ottoman power, or perish
+in the attempt. The war was long, and sanguinary, but finally resulted in
+the emancipation of Greece, and the establishment of its independence as a
+nation.
+
+The inhabitants of the United States could not witness such a struggle
+with indifference. A spirit of sympathy ran like electricity throughout
+the land. Public meetings were held in nearly every populous town in the
+Union, in which resolutions, encouraging the Greeks in their struggle,
+were passed, and contributions taken up to aid them. Money, clothing,
+provisions, arms, were collected in immense quantities and shipped to
+Greece. In churches, colleges, academies and schools--at the theatres,
+museums, and other places of amusement and public resort--aid was freely
+and generously given in behalf of the struggling patriots. Many citizens
+of the United States, when the first blast of the trumpet of liberty rang
+along the Ionian seas, and through the Peloponnesus, sped across the
+ocean, and, throwing themselves into the midst of the Grecian hosts,
+contended heroically for their emancipation. Among these volunteers, was
+Col. J. P. Miller, of Vermont, who not only gallantly fought in the
+battles of Greece, but was greatly serviceable in conveying supplies from
+the United States to that struggling people.
+
+The deep sympathy which prevailed in every section of the Union, was soon
+felt in Congress. Many public men were anxious that the Government should
+take some important and decisive step, even to hostilities, in behalf of
+Greece. Eloquent speeches were delivered in the House of Representatives
+on the exciting topic. Mr. Clay electrified the country with his stirring
+appeals in behalf of the land in which was established the first republic
+on earth. Mr. Webster submitted the following resolution to the House of
+Representatives:--
+
+"Resolved, That provision ought to be made by law, for defraying the
+expense incident to the appointment of an Agent, or Commissioner, to
+Greece, whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such
+appointment."
+
+In support of this resolution, Mr. Webster made a most eloquent speech, of
+which the following is the conclusion:--
+
+"Mr. Chairman--There are some things which, to be well done, must be
+promptly done. If we even determine to do the thing that is now proposed,
+we may do it too late Sir, I am not of those who are for withholding aid
+when it is most urgently needed, and when the stress is past, and the aid
+no longer necessary, overwhelming the sufferers with caresses. I will not
+stand by and see my fellow-man drowning, without stretching out a hand to
+help him, till he has, by his own efforts and presence of mind, reached
+the shore in safety, and then encumber him with aid. With suffering
+Greece, now is the crisis of her fate--her great, it may be her last
+struggle. Sir, while we sit here deliberating, her destiny may be decided.
+The Greeks, contending with ruthless oppressors, turn their eyes to us,
+and invoke us, by their ancestors, by their slaughtered wives and
+children, by their own blood poured out like water, by the hecatombs of
+dead they have heaped up, as it were, to heaven; they invoke, they implore
+from us some cheering sound, some look of sympathy, some token of
+compassionate regard. They look to us as the great Republic of the
+earth--and they ask us, by our common faith, whether we can forget that
+they are struggling, as we once struggled, for what we now so happily
+enjoy? I cannot say, sir, they will succeed; that rests with heaven. But,
+for myself, sir, if I should to-morrow hear that they have failed--that
+their last phalanx had sunk beneath the Turkish cimetar, that the flames
+of their last city had sunk in its ashes, and that nought remained but
+the wide, melancholy waste where Greece once was--I should still reflect,
+with the most heartfelt satisfaction, that I have asked you, in the name
+of seven millions of freemen, that you would give them, at least, the
+cheering of one friendly voice."
+
+The committee having in charge the raising of a fund for the assistance of
+the Greeks, in New York, addressed a circular to the venerable
+ex-President John Adams, to which they received the following reply:--
+
+                                               "Quincy, Dec. 29, 1823.
+"GENTLEMEN:--I have received your circular of the 12th inst., and I thank
+you for the honor you have done me in addressing it to me. Be assured my
+heart beats in unison with yours, and with those of your constituents, and
+I presume with all the really civilized part of mankind, in sympathy with
+the Greeks, suffering, as they are, in the great cause of liberty and
+humanity. The gentlemen of Boston have taken measures to procure a general
+subscription in their favor, through the State, and I shall contribute my
+mite with great pleasure. In the meantime I wish you, and all other
+gentlemen engaged in the virtuous work, all the success you or they can
+wish; for I believe no effort in favor of virtue will be ultimately lost.
+
+"I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, your very humble Servant,
+                                                 "JOHN ADAMS."
+
+The sympathies of John Quincy Adams were ardently enlisted in behalf of
+the Greek Revolution. But with a prudence and wisdom which characterized
+all his acts, he threw his influence against any direct interference on
+the part of the Government of the United States. It would have been a
+departure from that neutral policy, in regard to European conflicts, on
+which the country had acted from the commencement of our national
+existence, alike injurious and dangerous. He knew if we once entered into
+these wars, on any pretext whatever, a door would be opened for foreign
+entanglements and endless conflicts, which would result in standing
+armies, immense national debts, and the long trail of evils of which they
+are the prolific source.
+
+When an application was made to Mr. Adams, as Secretary of State, through
+Mr. Rush, our Minister at London, by an Agent of Greece, for aid from the
+United States, he was compelled, on principles above stated, to withhold
+the required assistance. The correspondence which grew out of this
+application is sufficiently interesting to find a place in these pages:--
+
+"Andreas Luriottis, Envoy of the Provisional Government of Greece, to the
+Hon. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State to the United States of
+America.
+
+SIR:--I feel no slight emotion, while, in behalf of Greece, my country,
+struggling for independence and liberty, I address myself to the United
+States of America.
+
+"The independence for which we combat, you have achieved. The liberty to
+which we look, with anxious solicitude, you have obtained, and
+consolidated in peace and in glory.
+
+"Yet Greece, old Greece, the seat of early civilization and freedom,
+stretches out her hands, imploringly, to a land which sprung into being,
+as it were, ages after her own lustre had been extinguished! and
+ventures to hope that the youngest and most vigorous sons of liberty, will
+regard, with no common sympathy, the efforts of the descendants of the
+heir and the elder born, whose precepts and whose example have
+served--though insufficient, hitherto, for our complete regeneration--to
+regenerate half a world.
+
+"I know, Sir, that the sympathies of the generous people of the United
+States have been extensively directed towards us; and since I have reached
+this country, an interview with their Minister, Mr. Rush, has served to
+convince me more strongly, how great their claim is on our gratitude and
+our affection. May I hope that some means may be found to communicate
+these our feelings, of which I am so proud to be the organ? We will still
+venture to rely on their friendship. We would look to their individual, if
+not to their national, co-operation. Every, the slightest, assistance
+under present circumstances, will aid the progress of the great work of
+liberty; and if, standing, as we have stood, alone and unsupported, with
+everything opposed to us, and nothing to encourage us but patriotism,
+enthusiasm, and sometimes even despair: if thus we have gone forward,
+liberating our provinces, one after another, and subduing every force
+which has been directed against us, what may we not do with the assistance
+for which we venture to appeal to the generous and the free?
+
+"Precipitated by circumstances into that struggle for independence, which,
+ever since the domination of our cruel and reckless tyrants, had never
+ceased to be the object of our vows and prayers, we have, by the blessing
+of God, freed a considerable part of Greece from the ruthless invaders.
+The Peloponnesus, Etolia, Carmania, Attica, Phocida, Boetia, and the
+Islands of the Archipelago and Candia, are nearly free. The armies and
+the fleets which have been sent against us, have been subdued by the valor
+of our troops and our marine. Meanwhile we have organized a government,
+founded upon popular suffrages: and you will probably have seen how
+closely our organic law assimilates to that constitution under which your
+nation so happily and so securely lives.
+
+"I have been sent hither by the government of Greece, to obtain assistance
+in our determined enterprize, on which we, like you, have staked our
+lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor: and I believe my journey has
+not been wholly without success. I should have been wanting to my duty had
+I not addressed you, supplicating the earliest display of your amiable
+purposes; entreating that diplomatic relations may be established between
+us; communicating the most earnest desire of my government that we may be
+allowed to call you allies as well as friends; and stating that we shall
+rejoice to enter upon discussions which may lead to immediate and
+advantageous treaties, and to receive diplomatic agents without delay.
+Both at Madrid and at Lisbon, I have been received with great kindness by
+the American Representative, and am pleased to record the expression of my
+gratitude.
+
+"Though, fortunately, you are so far removed, and raised so much above the
+narrow politics of Europe as to be little influenced by their
+vicissitudes, I venture to believe that Mr. Rush will explain to you the
+changes which have taken place, and are still in action around us, in our
+favor. And I conclude, rejoicing in the hope that North America and Greece
+may be united in the bonds of long-enduring, and unbroken concord: and
+have the honor to be, with every sentiment of respect, your obedient
+humble servant.
+                                                    "AND. LURIOTTIS.
+  'London, February 20, 1823."
+
+MR. ADAMS TO MR. RUSH.
+
+                                     "Department of State,
+                                      Washington, 18th August, 1823.
+"SIR:--I have the honor of inclosing, herewith, an answer to the letter
+from Mr. Luriottis, the Agent of the Greeks addressed to me, and a copy
+of which was transmitted with your dispatch No. 295.
+
+"If, upon the receipt of this letter, Mr. Luriottis should still be in
+London, it will be desirable that you should deliver it to him in person,
+accompanied with such remarks and explanations as may satisfy him, and
+those whom he represents, that, in declining the proposal of giving active
+aid to the cause of Grecian emancipation, the Executive Government of the
+United States has been governed not by its inclinations, or a sentiment of
+indifference to the cause, but by its constitutional duties, clear and
+unequivocal.
+
+"The United States could give assistance to the Greeks, only by the
+application of some portion of their public forces or of their public
+revenue in their favor, which would constitute them in a state of war with
+the Ottoman Porte, and perhaps with all the Barbary powers. To make this
+disposal either of force or of treasure, you are aware is, by our
+constitution, not within the competency of the Executive. It could be
+determined only by an act of Congress, which would assuredly not be
+adopted, should it even be recommended by the Executive.
+
+"The policy of the United States, with reference to foreign nations, has
+always been founded upon the moral principle of natural law--Peace with
+all mankind. From whatever cause war between other nations, whether
+foreign or domestic, has arisen, the unvarying law of the United States
+has been peace with both belligerents. From the first war of the French
+Revolution, to the recent invasion of Spain, there has been a succession
+of wars, national and civil, in almost everyone of which one of the
+parties was contending for liberty or independence. In the first French
+revolutionary war, a strong impulse of feeling urged the people of the
+United States to take side with the party which, at its commencement, was
+contending, apparently, at least, for both. Had the policy of the United
+States not been essentially pacific, a stronger case to claim their
+interference could scarcely have been presented. They nevertheless
+declared themselves neutral, and the principle, then deliberately settled,
+has been invariably adhered to ever since.
+
+"With regard to the recognition of sovereign States, and the establishment
+with them of a diplomatic intercourse, the experience of the last thirty
+years has served also to ascertain the limits proper for the application
+of principles in which every nation must exercise some latitude of
+discretion. Precluded by their neutral position from interfering in the
+question of right, the United States have recognized the fact of foreign
+sovereignty only when it was undisputed, or disputed without any rational
+prospect of success. In this manner the successive changes of government
+in many of the European states, and the revolutionary governments of South
+America, have been acknowledged. The condition of the Greeks is not yet
+such as will admit of their recognition, upon these principles.
+
+"Yet, as we cherish the most friendly feelings towards them, and are
+sincerely disposed to render them any service which may be compatible with
+our neutrality, it will give us pleasure to learn, from time to time, the
+actual state of their cause, political and military. Should Mr. Luriottis
+be enabled and disposed to furnish this information, it may always be
+communicated through you, and will be received with satisfaction here. The
+public accounts from that quarter have been of late very scanty, and we
+shall be glad to obtain any authentic particulars, which may come to your
+knowledge from this, or through any other channel.
+
+"I am with great respect, Sir, your very humble and obedient servant,
+                                                   JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
+
+MR. ADAMS TO MR. LURIOTTIS.
+
+                                    "Department of State,
+                                     Washington, 18th August, 1823.
+"Sir: A copy of the letter which you did me the honor of addressing to me,
+on the 20th of February last, has been transmitted to me by the Minister
+of the United States at London, and has received the deliberate
+consideration of the President of the United States.
+
+"The sentiments with which he has witnessed the struggles of your
+countrymen for their national emancipation and independence, had been made
+manifest to the world in a public message to the Congress of the United
+States. They are cordially felt by the people of this Union; who,
+sympathizing with the cause of freedom and independence wherever its
+standard is unfurled, behold with peculiar interest the display of Grecian
+energy in defence of Grecian liberties, and the association of heroic
+exertions, at the present time, with the proudest glories of former ages,
+in the land of Epaminondas and Philopoemon.
+
+"But while cheering with their best wishes the cause of the Greeks, the
+United States are forbidden, by the duties of their situation, from taking
+part in the war, to which their relation is that of neutrality. At peace
+themselves with all the world, their established policy, and the
+obligations of the laws of nations, preclude them from becoming voluntary
+auxiliaries to a cause which would involve them in war.
+
+"If in the progress of events the Greeks should be enabled to establish
+and organize themselves as an independent nation, the United States will
+be among the first to welcome them, in that capacity, into the general
+family; to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with them, suited
+to the mutual interests of the two countries; and to recognize, with
+special satisfaction, their constituted state in the character of a sister
+Republic.
+
+"I have the honor to be, with distinguished consideration, Sir, your very
+humble and obedient servant,
+                                                   "JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
+
+The sentiments, in regard to the foreign policy of our Government, which
+Mr. Adams embodies in this correspondence, he had previously expressed in
+an oration delivered in the city of Washington, on the 4th of July, 1821,
+of which the following is an extract:--
+
+"America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has
+invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of
+honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity; she has
+uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless, and often to
+disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and
+equal rights; she has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a
+single exception, respected the independence of other nations while
+asserting and maintaining her own; she has abstained from interference in
+the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to
+which she clings as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has
+seen that probably for centuries to come all the contests of that
+Aceldama, the European world, will be contests of inveterate power and
+emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been
+or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her
+prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She
+is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all--she is the
+champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general
+cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her
+example:--she well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than
+her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would
+involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of
+interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which
+assume the colors, and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental
+maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force; the
+frontlet on her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of
+freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an
+imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre, the murky
+radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the
+world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit."
+
+During Mr. Adams's occupancy of the state department, efforts were made by
+the American Government to abolish the African slave trade, and procure
+its denunciation as piracy, by the civilized world. On the 28th of Feb.,
+1823, the following resolution was adopted by the House of
+Representatives, at Washington, by a vote of 131 to 9:--
+
+"Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to enter
+upon and to prosecute, from time to time, such negotiations with the
+several maratime powers of Europe and America, as he may deem expedient
+for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade, and its ultimate
+denunciation as piracy, under the law of nations, by the consent of the
+civilized world."
+
+In compliance with this resolution, Mr. Adams, as Secretary of State,
+issued directions to the American Ministers in Spain, Russia, the
+Netherlands, Colombia, and Buenos Ayres, to enter into negotiations with
+the Governments of these countries on this subject. Mr. Adams also
+maintained an able correspondence with the Hon. Stratford Canning, the
+British Minister at Washington, in relation to the basis on which a treaty
+should be formed with Great Britain for the suppression of the foreign
+slave trade.
+
+Mr. Rush, the American Minister at the Court of St. James, was directed to
+enter upon negotiations in London, to this end. His instructions were
+written by Mr. Adams, with his usual sound judgment and enlarged views of
+national policy, and the claims of humanity. The convention was in due
+time completed, and signed by the Plenipotentiaries of both nations, on
+the 13th of March. 1824, and was sent by Mr. Rush to Washington for
+ratification. Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams were ready to give it their
+sanction; but the Senate insisted on striking out a provision in the first
+article. The article commenced as follows:--
+
+"The commanders and commissioned officers of each of the two high
+contracting parties, duly authorized, under the regulations and
+instructions of their respective Governments, to cruise on the coasts of
+Africa, of America, and of the West Indies, for the suppression of the
+slave trade, shall be empowered, under the conditions, limitations, and
+restrictions hereinafter specified," &c.
+
+The Senate struck out the words "of America." This amendment the British
+Government would not assent to. Thus the negotiation on the slave trade,
+so near a consummation, fell to the ground.
+
+Mr. Monroe's administration closed on the 3rd of March, 1825. It was a
+period of uninterrupted prosperity to the country. Our foreign commerce,
+recovering from the paralysis caused by the embargo, the non-intercourse
+act, and the war, spread forth its wings and whitened every sea and ocean
+on the globe. The domestic condition of the Union was thriving beyond the
+precedent of many former years. Improvements in agriculture were
+developed; domestic manufactures received a fair protection and
+encouragement; internal improvements, gaining more and more the attention
+and confidence of the people, had been prosecuted to the evident benefit
+of all branches of business and enterprize.
+
+Another characteristic of the administration of Mr. Monroe is worthy of
+note. So judiciously and patriotically had he exercised the powers
+entrusted to him, that he disarmed opposition. Divisions, jealousies and
+contentions were destroyed, and a thorough fusion of all political parties
+took place. At his re-election for the second term of the presidency,
+there was no opposing candidate. There was but one party, and that was the
+great party of the American people. His election was unanimous.
+
+In all these measures, Mr. Adams was the coadjutor and confidential
+adviser of Mr. Monroe. It is no derogation from the well-merited
+reputation of the latter to say, that many of the most striking and
+praiseworthy features of his administration were enstamped upon it by the
+labor and influence of the former. His success in maturing and carrying
+into execution his most popular measures must be attributed, in no small
+extent, to the ability and faithfulness of his eminent Secretary of State.
+And the historian may truly record that to John Quincy Adams, in an
+eminent degree, belongs a portion of the honor and credit which have been
+so generally accorded to the administration of James Monroe.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MR. ADAMS' NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY--SPIRITED PRESIDENTIAL
+CAMPAIGN--NO CHOICE BY THE PEOPLE--ELECTION GOES TO THE HOUSE OF
+REPRESENTATIVES--MR. ADAMS ELECTED PRESIDENT--HIS INAUGURATION--
+FORMS HIS CABINET.
+
+James Monroe was the last of the illustrious line of Presidents whose
+claims to that eminent station dated back to the revolution. A grateful
+people had conferred the highest honors in their gift upon the most
+conspicuous of those patriots who had faithfully served them in that
+perilous struggle, and aided in constructing and consolidating the union
+of these States. This debt punctually and honorably discharged, they
+looked to another generation, possessing claims of a different
+description, for servants to elevate to the dignity of the presidential
+chair.
+
+In the midst of a large class of public men who had in the mean time
+become conspicuous for talents and services of various descriptions, it is
+no matter of surprise that the people of the United States should
+entertain a diversity of opinions in regard to the most suitable
+individual to fill a station which had hitherto been occupied by men whose
+virtues and whose patriotism had shed the brightest lustre on the
+American name and character throughout the world. Candidates for the
+presidency were nominated in various sections of the Union. The eastern
+States turned their eyes instinctively towards JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, as one,
+among all the eminent competitors, the most fitted, by character and
+services, for the office of President of the United States. The members of
+the Legislature of Maine resolved--
+
+"That the splendid talents and incorruptible integrity of JOHN QUINCY
+ADAMS, his republican habits and principles, distinguished public
+services, and extensive knowledge of, and devoted attachment to, the vital
+interests of the country, justly entitle him to the first honors in the
+gift of an enlightened and grateful people."
+
+The republican members of the Massachusetts Legislature adopted the
+following resolutions:--
+
+"Resolved, That the ability, experience, integrity and patriotism of JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS; his manly efforts to defend the principles of that
+government under which, in God's providence, we hope to die; his unshaken
+fortitude and resolution in all political exigencies; his long, faithful,
+and valuable services, under the patronage of all the Presidents of the
+United States, present him to the people of this nation, as a man
+eminently qualified to subserve the best interests of his country, and as
+a statesman without reproach.
+
+"Resolved, That a man who has given such continued and indubitable pledges
+of his patriotism and capacity, may be safely placed at the head of this
+nation. Every impulse of his heart, and every dictate of his mind, must
+unite promptly in the support of the interests, the honor, and the liberty
+of his country.
+
+"Resolved, That JOHN QUINCY ADAMS is hereby recommended by us to the
+people of the United States, as the most suitable candidate for the office
+of President, at the approaching election."
+
+A meeting of the citizens of Rhode Island passed the following among other
+resolutions:--
+
+"Resolved, That, although we duly acknowledge the talents and public
+services of all the candidates for the presidency, we have the fullest
+confidence in the acknowledged ability, integrity and experience of JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS, the accomplished scholar, the true republican, the
+enlightened statesman, and the honest man; and we are desirous that his
+merits should be rewarded with the first office in the gift of the people
+of the United States--that his future services may continue unto us those
+blessings which, under the present administration of the General
+Government, we have so abundantly enjoyed."
+
+These were high encomiums. But who among the American people, now that the
+patriot has departed from earth, can survey his life, his character, and
+his services, and not acknowledge they were justly and richly deserved?
+Similar resolutions were passed in all the eastern and many of the
+northern States.
+
+The west brought forward HENRY CLAY, one of the most popular orators and
+eminent statesman of the day. GEN. JACKSON, who had earned a splendid
+military reputation, was nominated in the southwest, and WM. H. CRAWFORD
+was selected as the candidate representing the southern portion of the
+confederacy. These were all men of eminence and of acknowledged talents.
+They were worthy competitors for the highest honors of the Republic.
+
+The friends of Mr. Adams rested his claims for the presidency on no
+factitious qualities. They urged that his characteristics were such as to
+commend him to the confidence of every true republican and well-wisher of
+his country. While his attainments were not of the showy and popular cast
+possessed by many public men, they yet were of that solid, practical and
+valuable description which must ever receive the sanction of intelligent
+and reflecting minds.
+
+The qualifications on which his supporters depended, and to which they
+called the attention of the American people, as reasons for elevating him
+to the head of the General Government, may be summarily enumerated as
+follows:--1. The purity of his private character--the simplicity of his
+personal habits--his unbending integrity and uprightness, even beyond
+suspicion. 2. His commanding talents, and his acquirements both as a
+scholar and a statesman. 3. His love of country--his truly American
+feelings, in all that concerned the welfare and honor of the United
+States. 4. His long experience in public affairs, especially his
+familiarity with our foreign relations, and his perfect knowledge of the
+institutions, the internal condition and policy of European nations. 5.
+His advocacy of protection to domestic manufactures, and of a judicious
+system of internal improvements.
+
+In regard to internal improvements by the General Government, there was a
+difference of opinion between Mr. Adams and President Monroe. The latter
+was strongly impressed with the beneficial tendency of a well-digested
+system of internal improvements; but he believed the constitution
+conferred no power on Congress to make appropriations for such a purpose.
+It was in this view of the subject that he vetoed a bill which assumed the
+right to adopt and execute such a system, passed by Congress during the
+session of 1820-21. But anxious that internal improvements, confined to
+great national purposes, and with proper limitations, should be
+prosecuted, he suggested that an amendment of the constitution to that
+effect should be recommended to the several States.
+
+Mr. Adams, however, had no doubts that Congress already possessed a
+constitutional power to prosecute such internal improvements as were of a
+national character, and calculated to benefit the Union, and to levy
+duties for the protection of domestic manufactures. During his entire
+political career he had deemed these to be two great points toward which
+the American Government and people should turn their especial attention;
+and he ever gave them his faithful advocacy and support. With consummate
+wisdom, he foresaw that the more completely our internal resources were
+developed, and the less dependent we were on foreign powers, the greater
+would be our public and private prosperity. He insisted that by an
+adequate protection of domestic manufactures, there would be an increased
+demand for our raw materials at home, and thus the several productive and
+manufacturing sections of the Republic would realize the benefits of a
+dependence on each other, and the Union would be consolidated and
+perpetuated for ages to come.
+
+While a candidate for the presidency, Mr. Adams received a letter
+inquiring his views on the subject of internal improvement. The following
+is an extract from his reply:--
+
+"On the 23rd of Feb., 1807, I offered, in the Senate of the United States,
+of which I was then a member, the first resolution, as I believe, that
+ever was presented to Congress, contemplating a general system of internal
+improvement. I thought that Congress possessed the power of appropriating
+money to such improvement, and of authorizing the works necessary for
+making it--subject always to the territorial rights of the several States
+in or through which the improvement is to be made, to be secured by the
+consent of their Legislatures, and to proprietary rights of individuals,
+to be purchased or indemnified. I still hold the same opinions; and,
+although highly respecting the purity of intention of those who object, on
+constitutional grounds, to the exercise of this power, it is with
+heartfelt satisfaction that I perceive those objections gradually yielding
+to the paramount influence of the general welfare. Already have
+appropriations of money to great objects of internal improvement been
+freely made; and I hope we shall both live to see the day, when the only
+question of our statesmen and patriots, concerning the authority of
+Congress to improve, by public works essentially beneficent, and beyond
+the means of less than national resources, the condition of our common
+country, will be how it ever could have been doubted."
+
+On another occasion, Mr. Adams expressed himself on the subject of
+internal improvements in the following manner:--
+
+"The question of the power of Congress to authorize the making of internal
+improvements, is, in other words, a question whether the people of this
+Union, in forming their common social compact, as avowedly for the purpose
+of promoting their general welfare, have performed their work in a manner
+so ineffably stupid as to deny themselves the means of bettering their own
+condition. I have too much respect for the intellect of my country to
+believe it. The first object of human association is the improvement of
+the condition of the associated. Roads and canals are among the most
+essential means of improving the condition of nations. And a people which
+should deliberately, by the organization of its authorized power, deprive
+itself of the faculty of multiplying its own blessings, would be as wise
+as a creator who should undertake to constitute a human being without a
+heart."
+
+In addition to other claims, the friends of Mr. Adams urged his elevation
+to the presidency on the ground of locality. During the thirty-six years
+which had passed since the adoption of the constitution, the General
+Government had been administered but four years by a northern President.
+It was insisted with much force that the southern portion of the Republic
+had thus far exerted a disproportionate influence in the executive
+department of the nation. While the north, although far the most populous,
+and contributing much the largest portion of the means for defraying the
+national expenditures, would not claim to monopolize an undue degree of
+power in controlling the measures of administration, yet it could justly
+insist that its demands for an equitable share of influence should be
+heeded. These suggestions unquestionably possessed a weight in the minds
+of the people, favorable to the prospects of Mr. Adams.
+
+The Presidential campaign of 1824, was more spirited and exciting than any
+that had taken place since the first election of Mr. Jefferson. It was
+novel in the number of candidates presented for the suffrages of the
+people, and was conducted with great zeal and vigor by the friends of the
+different aspirants. Strictly speaking, it could not be called a party
+contest. Mr. Monroe's wise and prudent administration had obliterated
+party lines, and left a very general unanimity of sentiment on political
+principles and measures, throughout the Union. The various candidates--
+Adams, Jackson, Clay, Crawford--all subscribed, substantially, to the same
+political creed, and entertained similar views as to the principles on
+which the General Government should be administered. The struggle was a
+personal and sectional one, more than of a party nature.
+
+It had long been foreseen that a choice of President would not be effected
+by the people. The result verified this prediction. Of two hundred and
+sixty-one electoral votes, Gen. Jackson received ninety-nine, Mr. Adams
+eighty-four, Mr. Crawford forty-one, and Mr. Clay thirty-seven. Neither of
+the candidates having received a majority in the electoral colleges, the
+election devolved on the House of Representatives. This took place on the
+9th of Feb., 1825.
+
+On the morning of that day, the House met at an earlier hour than usual.
+The galleries, the lobbies, and the adjacent apartments, were filled to
+overflowing--with spectators from every part of the Union to witness the
+momentous event. It was a scene the most sublime that could be witnessed
+on earth. The Representatives of the People, in the exercise of the
+highest right of freemen, were about to select a citizen to administer the
+Government of a great Republic.
+
+All the members of the House were present, with the exception of one, who
+was confined by indisposition. The Speaker (Henry Clay) took his chair,
+and the ordinary business of the morning was attended to in the usual
+manner. At 12 o'clock, precisely, the members of the Senate entered the
+hall, preceded by their Sergeant-at-arms, and having the President of the
+Senate at their head, who was invited to a seat on the right hand of the
+Speaker. The Senators were assigned seats in front of the Speaker's chair.
+
+The President of the Senate (Mr. Gaillard) then rose, and stated that the
+certificates forwarded by the electors from each State would be delivered
+to the Tellers. Mr. Tazewell of the Senate, and Messrs. John W. Taylor
+and Philip P. Barbour on the part of the House, took their places, as
+Tellers, at the Clerk's table. The President of the Senate then opened two
+packets, one received by messenger and the other by mail, containing the
+certificates of the votes of the State of New Hampshire. One of these
+certificates was then read by Mr. Tazewell, while the other was compared
+with it by Messrs. Taylor and Barbour. The whole having been read, and
+the votes of New Hampshire declared, they were set down by the Clerks of
+the Senate and of the House of Representatives, seated at different
+tables. Thus the certificates from all the States were gone through with.
+At the conclusion, the Tellers left the Clerk's tables, and, presenting
+themselves in front of the Speaker, Mr. Tazewell delivered their report
+of the votes given.
+
+The President of the Senate then rose, and declared that no person had
+received a majority of the votes given for President of the United States:
+that Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford, were the
+three persons who had received the highest number of votes; and that the
+remaining duties in the choice of a President now devolved on the House of
+Representatives. He further declared, that John C. Calhoun of South
+Carolina, having received 182 votes, was duly elected Vice President of
+the United States, to serve four years from the 4th of March next. The
+members of the Senate then retired.
+
+The Speaker directed the roll of the House to be called by States, and the
+members of the respective delegations to take their seats in the order in
+which the States should be called, beginning at the right hand of the
+Speaker. The delegations took their seats accordingly. Ballot-boxes were
+distributed to each delegation, by the Sergeant-at-arms, and the Speaker
+directed that the balloting should, proceed. The ballots having all been
+deposited in the boxes, Tellers were named by the respective delegations,
+being one from each State, who took their seats at two tables.
+
+Mr. Webster of Massachusetts was appointed by those Tellers who sat at one
+table, and Mr. Randolph of Virginia by those at the other, to announce the
+result. After the ballots were counted out, Mr. Webster rose, and said:--
+
+"Mr. Speaker: The Tellers of the votes at this table have proceeded to
+count the ballots contained in the boxes set before them. The result they
+find to be, that there are for John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts,
+thirteen votes; for Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, seven votes; for William
+H. Crawford, of Georgia, four votes."
+
+Mr. Randolph, from the other table, made a statement corresponding with
+that of Mr. Webster.
+
+The Speaker then stated this result to the House, and announced that JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS, having a majority of the votes of these United States, was
+duly elected President of the same, for four years, commencing on the 4th
+day of March, 1825.
+
+A committee was appointed to wait upon Mr. Adams, and announce to him the
+result of the election, of which Mr. Webster was chairman. On performing
+this duty, they received from Mr. Adams the following reply:--
+
+GENTLEMEN:--In receiving this testimonial from the Representatives of the
+People and States of this Union, I am deeply sensible of the circumstances
+under which it has been given. All my predecessors have been honored with
+majorities of the electoral voices, in the primary colleges. It has been
+my fortune to be placed, by the divisions of sentiment prevailing among
+our countrymen on this occasion, in competition, friendly and honorable,
+with three of my fellow-citizens, all justly enjoying, in eminent degrees,
+the public favor; and of whose worth, talents and services no one
+entertains a higher and more respectful sense than myself. The names of
+two of them were, in the fulfilment of the provisions of the
+constitution, presented to the selection of the House of Representatives
+in concurrence with my own,--names closely associated with the glory of
+the nation, and one of them farther recommended by a larger majority of
+the primary electoral suffrages than mine.
+
+In this state of things, could my refusal to accept the trust thus
+delegated to me give an opportunity to the people to form, and to express,
+with a nearer approach to unanimity, the object of their preference, I
+should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of this eminent charge, and
+to submit the decision of this momentous question again to their
+determination. But the constitution itself has not so disposed of the
+contingency which would arise in the event of my refusal. I shall,
+therefore, repair to the post assigned me by the call of my country,
+signified through her constitutional organs; oppressed with the magnitude
+of the task before me, but cheered with the hope of that generous support
+from my fellow-citizens, which, in the vicissitudes of a life devoted to
+their service, has never failed to sustain me--confident in the trust,
+that the wisdom of the legislative councils will guide and direct me in
+the path of my official duty; and relying, above all, upon the
+superintending providence of that Being "in whose hands our breath is, and
+whose are all our ways."
+
+"Gentlemen, I pray you to make acceptable to the House, the assurance of
+my profound gratitude for their confidence, and to accept yourselves my
+thanks for the friendly terms in which you have communicated to me their
+decision."
+
+The diffidence manifested by Mr. Adams in accepting the office of
+President, under the peculiar circumstances of his election, and his wish,
+if it were possible, to submit his claims again to the people, were
+unquestionably uttered with great sincerity of heart. He was the choice of
+but a minority, as expressed in the electoral vote; and in accordance with
+his republican principles and feelings, he would have preferred another
+expression of public opinion.  But the constitution made no provision for
+such an arbitrament. He must either serve or resign. In the latter case,
+the Vice President would have discharged the duties of President during
+the term. Mr. Adams had no alternative, therefore, but to accept the
+office, agreeably to the terms of the constitution. Had either of his
+competitors been elected by the House of Representatives, they would have
+been, as he was, a minority President. Notwithstanding Gen. Jackson
+received fifteen more electoral votes than Mr. Adams, yet it is believed
+that in the primary assemblies the latter obtained a greater number of the
+actual votes of the people than the former.
+
+"Although Gen. Jackson had a plurality in the nominal returns from the
+electoral colleges, the question is, whether he had a plurality in the
+popular votes of the States. In North Carolina, the Crawford men had a
+great plurality over either of the Jackson and Adams sections; but the two
+latter joining their forces, gave the electoral vote of the State, it
+being fifteen, to Gen. Jackson. Deduct this from Gen. Jackson's
+plurality--as it should be, if the principle of plurality is to
+govern--and it leaves him eighty-four, the same as the vote of Mr. Adams.
+But Mr. Adams had a great plurality of the popular vote of New York, and
+on this principle should be credited the entire thirty-six votes of that
+State, whereas, he received only twenty-six. This adjustment would carry
+Mr. Adams up to ninety-four, and leave Gen. Jackson with eighty-four.
+Besides, the popular majorities for Mr. Adams in the six New England
+States were greatly in excess of the Jackson majorities in the eight
+States which gave their vote for him; which largely augments Mr. Adams'
+aggregate plurality in the Union over Gen. Jackson's. Then deduct the
+constitutional allowance for the slave vote in the slave States, as given
+by their masters. It will not be pretended that this is a popular vote,
+though constitutional. Gen. Jackson obtained fifty-five electoral votes,
+more than half his entire vote, and Mr. Adams only six from slave States.
+It will therefore be seen, that on the principle of a popular plurality,
+carried out, and carried through, (it ought not to stop for the advantage
+of one party,) Mr. Adams, in the election of 1824, was FAR AHEAD of Gen.
+Jackson." [Footnote: Colton's Life and Times of Henry Clay.]
+
+On the 4th of March, 1825, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as President
+of the United States, and took the executive chair, which had been entered
+twenty-eight years before by his venerated father. The declaration of that
+father in reference to the son, when a lad--"He behaves like a man!"--had
+gathered strength and meaning in the lapse of years. The people of the
+American republic, taught by a long series of faithful and eminent
+services, in the fulfilment of the prophetic words, placed him in a
+position the most elevated and honorable, the most worthy the aim of a
+pure and patriotic ambition, that earth can afford!
+
+The scene at the inauguration was splendid and imposing. At an early hour
+of the day the avenues leading to the capitol presented an animated
+spectacle. Crowds of citizens on foot, in carriages, and on horseback,
+were hastening to the great centre of attraction. Strains of martial
+music, and the movements of the various military corps, heightened the
+excitement.
+
+At 12 o'clock, the military escort, consisting of general and staff
+officers, and several volunteer companies, received the President elect at
+his residence, together with President Monroe, and several officers of
+government. The procession, led by the cavalry, and accompanied by an
+immense concourse of citizens, proceeded to the capitol, where it was
+received, with military honors, by the U. S. Marine Corps under Col.
+Henderson.
+
+Meanwhile the hall of the House of Representatives presented a brilliant
+spectacle. The galleries and the lobbies were crowded with spectators. The
+sofas between the columns, the bar, the promenade in the rear of the
+Speaker's chair, and the three outer rows of the members' seats, were
+occupied by a splendid array of beauty and fashion. On the left, the
+Diplomatic Corps, in the costume of their respective Courts, occupied the
+place assigned them, immediately before the steps which lead to the chair.
+The officers of the army and navy were scattered in groups throughout the
+hall. In front of the Clerk's table chairs were placed for the Judges of
+the Supreme Court.
+
+At twenty minutes past 12 o'clock, the marshals, in blue scarfs, made
+their appearance in the hall, at the head of the august procession. First
+came the officers of both Houses of Congress. Then appeared the President
+elect, followed by the venerable ex-president Monroe, with his family. To
+these succeeded the Judges of the Supreme Court, in their robes of office,
+the members of the Senate, preceded by the Vice-President, with a number
+of the members of the House of Representatives.
+
+Mr. Adams, in a plain suit of black, made entirely of American
+manufactures, ascended to the Speaker's chair, and took his seat. The
+Chief Justice was placed in front of the Clerk's table, having before him
+another table on the floor of the hall, on the opposite side of which sat
+the remaining Judges, with their faces towards the chair. The doors having
+been closed, and silence proclaimed, Mr. Adams arose, and, in a distinct
+and firm tone of voice, read his inaugural address.
+
+At the conclusion of the address, a general plaudit burst forth from the
+vast assemblage, which continued some minutes. Mr. Adams then descended
+from the chair, and, proceeding to the Judges' table, received from the
+Chief Justice a volume of the Laws of the United States, from which he
+read, with a loud voice, the oath of office. The plaudits and cheers of
+the multitude were at this juncture repeated, accompanied by salutes of
+artillery from without.
+
+The congratulations which then poured in from every side occupied the
+hands, and could not but reach the heart, of President Adams. The meeting
+between him and his venerated predecessor, had in it something peculiarly
+affecting. General Jackson was among the earliest of those who took the
+hand of the President; and their looks and deportment towards each other
+were a rebuke to that littleness of party spirit which can see no merit
+in a rival, and feel no joy in the honor of a competitor.
+
+Shortly after 1 o'clock, the procession commenced leaving the hall. The
+President was escorted back as he came. On his arrival at his residence,
+he received the compliments and respects of a great number of ladies and
+gentlemen, who called on him to tender their congratulations. The
+proceedings of the day were closed by an "inaugural ball" in the evening.
+Among the guests present, were the President and Vice-President.
+Ex-President Monroe, a number of foreign ministers, with many civil,
+military, and naval officers.[Footnote: National Intelligencer.]
+
+Mr. Adams's Inaugural Address is as follows:--
+
+"In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our federal
+constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the
+career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in
+your presence, and in that of heaven, to bind myself, by the solemnities
+of a religious obligation, to the faithful performance of the duties
+allotted to me, in the station to which I have been called.
+
+"In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be
+governed, in the fulfilment of those duties, my first resort will be to
+that constitution which I shall swear, to the best of my ability, to
+preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the
+powers and prescribes the duties of the Executive Magistrate, and in its
+first words, declares the purposes to which these, and the whole action of
+the Government instituted by it, should be invariably and sacredly
+devoted--to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic
+tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general
+welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union,
+in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this social
+compact, one of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our
+forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men, who contributed
+to its formation, through a most eventful period in the annals of the
+world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to
+the condition of associated man, it has not disappointed the hopes and
+aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age and nation. It
+has promoted the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all; it
+has, to an extent far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured the
+freedom and happiness of this people. We now receive it as a precious
+inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its establishment,
+doubly bound by the examples which they have left us, and by the blessings
+which we have enjoyed, as the fruits of their labors, to transmit the
+same, unimpaired, to the succeeding generation.
+
+"In the compass of thirty-six years, since this great national covenant
+was instituted, a body of laws enacted under its authority, and in
+conformity with its provisions, has unfolded its powers, and carried into
+practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate departments have
+distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign
+affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military force of the
+Union, by land and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has
+expounded the constitution and the laws; settling, in harmonious
+coincidence with the legislative will, numerous weighty questions of
+construction, which the imperfection of human language had rendered
+unavoidable. The year of jubilee since the first formation of our Union,
+has just elapsed; that of the Declaration of our Independence is at hand.
+The consummation of both was effected by this constitution. Since that
+period, a population of four millions has multiplied to twelve. A
+territory bounded by the Mississippi has been extended from sea to sea.
+New States have been admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly equal to
+those of the first confederation. Treaties of pence, amity, and commerce,
+have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth. The people
+of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by conquests, but
+by compact, have been united with us in the participation of our rights
+and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen by the axe
+of our woodsmen--the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our
+farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over
+physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty
+and law have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human association
+have been accomplished as effectually as under any other Government on
+the globe, and at a cost little exceeding, in a whole generation, the
+expenditures of other nations in a single year.
+
+"Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition under a constitution
+founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that this
+picture has its shades, is but to say, that it is still the condition of
+men upon earth. From evil--physical, moral, and political--it is not our
+claim to be exempt. We have suffered, sometimes by the visitation of
+Heaven through disease, often by the wrongs and injustice of other
+nations, even to the extremities of war; and lastly, by dissentions among
+ourselves--dissentions, perhaps, inseparable from the enjoyment of
+freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the
+dissolution of the Union, and, with it, the overthrow of all the
+enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly hopes of the future.
+The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon
+differences of speculation in the theory of republican government, upon
+conflicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations; upon
+jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices
+and prepossessions, which strangers to each other are ever apt to
+entertain.
+
+"It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me, to observe
+that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights,
+has, at the close of that generation by which it was formed, been crowned
+with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders.
+Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defence, the general welfare,
+and the blessings of liberty--all have been promoted by the Government
+under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to
+that generation which has gone by, and forward to that which is advancing,
+we may at once indulge in grateful exultation and in cheering hope. From
+the experience of the past, we derive instructive lessons for the future.
+
+"Of the two great political parties which have divided the opinions and
+feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now admit, that both
+have contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity, ardent patriotism,
+and disinterested sacrifices, to the formation and administration of the
+Government, and that both have required a liberal indulgence for a portion
+of human infirmity and error. The revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing
+precisely at the moment when the Government of the United States first
+went into operation under the constitution, excited collisions of
+sentiments and of sympathies, which kindled all the passions and
+embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war,
+and the Union was shaken to its centre. This time of trial embraced a
+period of five and twenty years, during which the policy of the Union in
+its relations with Europe constituted the principal basis of our own
+political divisions, and the most arduous part of the action of the
+Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the wars of the French
+Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain,
+this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time no
+difference of principle, connected with the theory of government, or with
+our intercourse with foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in
+force sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties, or given
+more than wholesome animation to public sentiment or legislative debate.
+Our political creed, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, is,
+that the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people
+is the end, of all legitimate government upon earth: that the best
+security for the beneficence, and the best guaranty against the abuse of
+power, consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular
+elections: that the General Government of the Union, and the separate
+Governments of the States, are all sovereignties of legitimate powers,
+fellow-servants of the same masters--uncontrolled within their respective
+spheres, uncontrollable by encroachments on each other. If there have been
+those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy was a
+Government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common
+concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled. If there
+have been projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the ruins
+of the Union, they have been scattered to the winds. If there have been
+dangerous attachments to one foreign nation, and antipathies against
+another, they have been extinguished. Ten years of peace at home and
+abroad have assuaged the animosities of political contention, and blended
+into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion. There still
+remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion,
+to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore
+followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every
+remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing, as countrymen and
+friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence
+which, in times of contention for principle, was bestowed only upon those
+who bore the badge of party communion.
+
+"The collisions of party spirit, which originate in speculative opinions,
+or in different views of administrative policy, are in their nature
+transitory. Those which are founded on geographical divisions, adverse
+interests of soil, climate, and modes of domestic life, are more
+permanent, and therefore, perhaps, more dangerous. It is this which gives
+inestimable value to the character of our Government, at once federal and
+national. It holds out to us a perpetual admonition to preserve, alike,
+and with equal anxiety, the rights of each individual State in its own
+Government, and the rights of the whole nation in that of the Union.
+Whatever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the other members
+of the Union, or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the
+administration of the State Governments. Whatsoever directly involves the
+rights and interests of the federative fraternity, or of foreign powers,
+is, of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are
+obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with
+difficulties in the detail. To respect the rights of the State Governments
+is the inviolable duty of that of the Union: the Government of every State
+will feel its own obligation to respect and preserve the rights of the
+whole. The prejudices everywhere too commonly entertained against distant
+strangers are worn away, and the jealousies of jarring interests are
+allayed, by the composition and functions of the great national councils,
+annually assembled, from all quarters of the Union, at this place. Here
+the distinguished men from every section of our country, while meeting to
+deliberate upon the great interests of those by whom they are deputed,
+learn to estimate the talents, and do justice to the virtues, of each
+other. The harmony of the nation is promoted, and the whole Union is knit
+together by the sentiments of mutual respect, the habits of social
+intercourse, and the ties of personal friendship, formed between the
+representatives of its several parts in the performance of their service
+at this metropolis.
+
+"Passing from this general review of the purposes and injunctions of the
+Federal constitution and their results, as indicating the first traces of
+the path of duty in the discharge of my public trust, I turn to the
+administration of my immediate predecessor, as the second. It has passed
+away in a period of profound peace: how much to the satisfaction of our
+country, and to the honor of our country's name, is known to you all. The
+great features of its policy, in general concurrence with the will of the
+Legislature, have been--To cherish peace while preparing for defensive war
+to yield exact justice to other nations, and maintain the rights of our
+own--to cherish the principles of freedom and equal rights, wherever they
+were proclaimed--to discharge, with all possible promptitude, the national
+debt--to reduce within the narrowest limits of efficiency the military
+force--to improve the organization and discipline of the army--to provide
+and sustain a school of military science--to extend equal protection to
+all the great interests of the nation--to promote the civilization of the
+Indian tribes; and to proceed to the great system of internal
+improvements, within the limits of the constitutional power of the Union.
+Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent citizen at the
+time of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight years
+the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt
+have been discharged; provision has been made for the comfort and relief
+of the aged and indigent among the surviving warriors of the Revolution;
+the regular armed force has been reduced, and its constitution revised and
+perfected; the accountability for the expenditures of public monies has
+been more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our
+boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the independence of the
+southern nations of this hemisphere has been recognized, and recommended
+by example and by counsel to the potentates of Europe; progress has been
+made in the defence of the country, by fortifications and the increase of
+the navy--towards the effectual suppression of the African traffic in
+slaves--in alluring the aboriginal hunters of our land to the cultivation
+of the soil and of the mind--in exploring the interior regions of the
+Union, and in preparing, by scientific researches and surveys, for the
+further application of our national resources to the internal improvement
+of our country.
+
+"In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my immediate
+predecessor, the line of duty, for his successor, is clearly delineated.
+To pursue to their consummation those purposes of improvement in our
+common condition instituted or recommended by him, will embrace the whole
+sphere of my obligation. To the topic of internal improvement,
+emphatically urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar
+satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn
+millions of our posterity, who are in future ages to people this
+continent, will derive their most fervent gratitude to the founders of the
+Union--that in which the beneficent action of its Government will be most
+deeply felt and acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their
+public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics.
+The roads and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after
+ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests have
+been swallowed up in despotism, or become the spoil of barbarians. Some
+diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of Congress
+for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference
+is due to doubts, originating in pure patriotism, and sustained by
+venerated authority. But nearly twenty years have passed since the
+construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for
+its construction was then unquestioned. To how many thousands of our
+countrymen has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has it ever
+proved an injury? Repeated, liberal and candid discussions in the
+Legislature have conciliated the sentiments, and approximated the opinions
+of enlightened minds, upon the question of constitutional power. I cannot
+but hope that, by the same process of friendly, patient, and persevering
+deliberation, all constitutional objections will ultimately be removed.
+The extent and limitation of the powers of the General Government, in
+relation to this transcendently important interest, will be settled and
+acknowledged to the common satisfaction of all; and every speculative
+scruple will be solved by a practical public blessing.
+
+"Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of
+the recent election, which have resulted in affording me the opportunity
+of addressing you at this time. You have heard the exposition of the
+principles which will direct me in the fulfilment of the high and solemn
+trust imposed upon me in this station. Less possessed of your confidence,
+in advance, than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the
+prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence.
+Intentions upright and pure, a heart devoted to the welfare of our
+country, and the unceasing application of the faculties allotted to me to
+her service, are all the pledges that I can give for the faithful
+performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance of
+the legislative councils; to the assistance of the executive and
+subordinate departments; to the friendly co-operation of the respective
+State Governments; to the candid and liberal support of the people, so far
+as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal; I shall look for
+whatever success may attend my public service: and knowing that 'except
+the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,' with fervent
+supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit, with
+humble but fearless confidence, my own fate, and the future destinies of
+my country."
+
+In entering upon the discharge of his duties as President, Mr. Adams
+proceeded to form his cabinet by nominating Henry Clay, of Kentucky,
+Secretary of State; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the
+Treasury; James Barbour, of Virginia,   Secretary of War; Samuel L.
+Southard, Secretary of the Navy, and Wm. Wirt, Attorney General. These
+were all men of superior talents, of tried integrity and faithfulness, and
+well worthy the elevated positions to which they were called.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHARGES OF CORRUPTION AGAINST MR. CLAY AND MR. ADAMS--MR. ADAMS ENTERS
+UPON HIS DUTIES AS PRESIDENT--VISIT OF LA FAYETTE--TOUR THROUGH THE
+UNITED STATES--MR. ADAMS DELIVERS HIM A FAREWELL ADDRESS--DEPARTS FROM THE
+UNITED STATES.
+
+The election of Mr. Adams to the presidency, was a severe disappointment
+to the friends of Gen. Jackson. As the latter had received a majority of
+fifteen electoral votes over Mr. Adams, it was confidently anticipated,
+nay, virtually demanded, that he should be elected by the House of
+Representatives. This claim, it was insisted, was in accordance with the
+will of the people, as expressed in the electoral colleges, and to resist
+it would be to violate the spirit of the constitution, and to set at
+nought the fundamental principles of our republican Government. A
+sufficient reply to these positions is found in the fact, that Gen.
+Jackson did not receive a majority of the electoral votes, and hence a
+majority of the people could not be considered as desiring his election.
+The absolute truth, subsequently obtained on this point, was, that Mr.
+Adams had received more of the primary votes of the people than Gen.
+Jackson; and thus, according to all republican principles, was entitled to
+be considered the first choice of the citizens of the United States.
+
+The position of Mr. Clay, in this contest for the presidency, was one of
+great delicacy and difficulty. He was precisely in that critical posture,
+that, whatever course he might pursue, he would be subject to
+misrepresentation and censure, and could not but raise up a host of
+enemies. Originally one of the four candidates for the presidency, he
+failed, by five electoral votes, in having a sufficient number to be one
+of the three candidates returned to the House of Representatives, of which
+he was then Speaker. In this posture of affairs, it was evident that upon
+the course which should be pursued by Mr. Clay, and his friends in the
+House, depended the question who should be elected President. As Mr.
+Crawford, on account of the critical state of his health, was considered
+out of the question, Mr. Clay was left to choose between Mr. Adams and
+Gen. Jackson.
+
+In this posture of affairs, Mr. Clay saw, that however patriotic the
+principles on which he acted, and however pure the motives by which he
+might be governed in making his selection, he must inevitably expose
+himself to the severest animadversions from the defeated party. But he did
+not hesitate, in the discharge of what he believed to be a solemn duty he
+owed his country, to throw his influence in behalf of the man whom he
+believed the best fitted to serve that country in the responsible office
+of the presidency. Long before it had been foreseen such a contingency
+would occur, he had expressed his want of confidence in the ability and
+fitness of Gen. Jackson for the executive chair. But in Mr. Adams he saw a
+man of the utmost purity and integrity of private character--a scholar of
+the ripest abilities--a statesman, a diplomatist, a patriot of
+unquestioned talents and of long experience,--one who had been entrusted
+with most important public interests by Washington, Adams, Jefferson,
+Madison and Monroe, and also had received from these illustrious men every
+mark of confidence--whose familiarity with the internal condition and
+foreign relations of the Union was unequalled by any public man! Between
+men so dissimilar in their qualifications, how could Mr. Clay, with the
+slightest regard to the welfare of the nation, the claims of patriotism,
+or the dictates of his conscience, hesitate to choose? He did not
+hesitate. With an intrepid determination to meet all consequences, he
+threw his influence in behalf of Mr. Adams, and secured his election.
+
+This decisive step, as had been clearly foreseen, drew upon the head of
+Mr. Clay the severest censures of the supporters of Gen. Jackson. Motives
+of the deepest political corruption were attributed to him. They charged
+him with making a deliberate stipulation or "bargain" with Mr. Adams, to
+give his influence, on the understanding that he was to receive, in
+payment, the appointment to the state department. The undoubted object of
+this charge was to ruin Mr. Clay's future prospects, and make capital to
+the advantage of Gen. Jackson in the next presidential campaign. It
+implicated Mr. Adams equally with Mr. Clay. If the latter had been so
+corrupt as to offer his support on the promise of office, the former was
+quite as guilty in accepting of terms so venal. There never was a more
+base charge against American statesmen--there never was one more entirely
+destitute of foundation, or even shadow of proof! It was at no time
+considered entitled to the slightest particle of belief by those who were
+at Washington during these transactions and had an opportunity of knowing
+the true state of things at that time. But there were many, throughout the
+country, too ready to receive such reports in regard to public men. Both
+Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay were greatly prejudiced by this alleged
+collusion--a prejudice which years did not efface.
+
+This charge first appeared in a tangible form shortly previous to the
+election by the House of Representatives, in an anonymous letter in the
+"Columbian Observer," at Philadelphia. It was soon ascertained to have
+been written by Mr. Kremer, a member of the House of Representatives from
+Pennsylvania. Mr. Clay immediately published a card in the National
+Intelligencer, denying, in unequivocal terms, the allegation, and
+pronouncing the author "an infamous calumniator, a dastard, and a liar!"
+
+A few days after this, Mr. Kremer acknowledged himself the author of the
+letter in the "Columbian Observer," and professed himself ready to prove
+the corruptions alleged: whereupon Mr. Clay demanded that the House raise
+a committee to investigate the case. The committee was appointed; but Mr.
+Kremer, on grounds of the most frivolous description, refused to appear
+before the committee, or to furnish a particle of proof of the truth of
+the grave assertions he had uttered--thus virtually acknowledging their
+slanderous character.
+
+Mr. Clay being in this manner denied the privilege of vindicating his
+innocence, and showing the depravity of his accusers, the matter continued
+in an unsettled state until the next presidential campaign, when it was
+revived in a more tangible form, and brought to bear adversely to Mr.
+Adams's administration and reelection. In 1827, Gen. Jackson, in a letter
+to Mr. Carter Beverly, which soon appeared in public print, made the
+following statement:--
+
+"Early in January, 1825, a member of Congress of high respectability
+visited me one morning, and observed that he had a communication he was
+desirous to make to me; that he was informed there was a great intrigue
+going on, and that it was right I should be informed of it. * * * * * * *
+He said he had been informed by the friends of Mr. Clay, that the friends
+of Mr. Adams had made overtures to them, saying, if Mr. Clay and his
+friends would unite in aid of Mr. Adams's election, Mr. Clay should be
+Secretary of State; that the friends of Mr. Adams were urging, as a reason
+to induce the friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their proposition, that if
+I were elected President, Mr. Adams would be continued Secretary of State;
+that the friends of Mr. Clay stated the West did not wish to separate from
+the West, and if I would say, or permit any of my confidential friends to
+say, that in case I were elected President Mr. Adams should not be
+continued Secretary of State, by a complete union of Mr. Clay and his
+friends, they would put an end to the presidential contest in one hour.
+And he was of opinion it was right to fight such intriguers with their
+own weapons."
+
+On a subsequent statement, Gen. Jackson asserted that the gentleman who
+called upon him with these propositions was James Buchanan, of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+This was the Kremer charge made definite in circumstances and
+application; and if well grounded, was susceptible of plain proof. On the
+appearance of this statement by Gen. Jackson, Mr. Clay came out with a
+positive denial. He said:--
+
+"I neither made, nor authorized, nor knew of any proposition whatever, to
+either of the three candidates who were returned to the House of
+Representatives, at the last presidential election, or to the friends of
+either of them, for the purpose of influencing the result of the election,
+or for any other purpose. And all allegations, intimations, and
+inuendoes, that my vote on that occasion was offered to be given, or was
+in fact given, in consideration of any stipulation or understanding,
+express or implied, direct or indirect, written or verbal,--that I was, or
+that any other person was not, to be appointed Secretary of State; or that
+I was, or in any other manner to be, personally benefitted,--are devoid
+of all truth, and destitute of any foundation whatever."
+
+Here was a direct collision between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Clay. All now
+rested with Mr. Buchanan. His testimony would either prostrate Mr. Clay,
+or place him, in regard to this matter, beyond the reach of the foulest
+tongue of calumny. In due time Mr. Buchanan made his statement, in which
+he denied, in unequivocal language, having made any such proposition to
+Gen. Jackson. In his explanation he says:--
+
+"I called upon General Jackson solely as his friend, upon my individual
+responsibility, and not as the agent of Mr. Clay, or any other person. I
+never have been the political friend of Mr. Clay, since he became a
+candidate for the office of President. Until I saw General Jackson's
+letter to Mr. Beverly, of the 6th ult., and at the same time was informed,
+by a letter from the editor of the United States Telegraph, that I was the
+person to whom he alluded, the conception never once entered my head, that
+he believed me to be the agent of Mr. Clay, or of his friends, or that I
+had intended to propose to him terms of any kind from them, or that he
+could have supposed me to be capable of expressing the opinion that 'it
+was right to fight such intriguers with their own weapons.' Such a
+supposition, had I entertained it, would have rendered me exceedingly
+unhappy, as there is no man on earth whose good opinion I more valued than
+that of General Jackson. * * * * * * * * * I owe it to my character to
+make another observation. Had I ever known, or even suspected, that
+General Jackson believed I had been sent to him by Mr. Clay or his
+friends, I should immediately have corrected his erroneous impression, and
+thus prevented the necessity for this most unpleasant explanation. * * * *
+* * * I had no authority from Mr. Clay, or his friends, to propose any
+terms to General Jackson in relation to their votes, nor did I ever make
+any such proposition."
+
+This statement fully and triumphantly exonerated Mr. Clay, Mr. Adams, and
+their friends, from the charge of "bargain" and "corruption," which had
+been so boldly made and widely disseminated. The only witness ever brought
+upon the stand to support such an allegation, asserted, in a manner the
+most positive and decisive, the entire innocence of the parties
+implicated.
+
+That Mr. Clay, in throwing his influence in behalf of Mr. Adams, was but
+following out a resolution formed long before he had any opportunity of
+communication with Mr. Adams or his friends, on the subject, is proved by
+the following extract of a letter from a gentleman in Lexington, Ky., to
+the editors of the National Intelligencer, dated March 21, 1825:--
+
+"At different times, before Mr. Clay left this place for Washington, last
+fall, I had conversations with him on the subject of the choice of a
+President by the House of Representatives. In all of them, he expressed
+himself as having long before decided in favor of Mr. Adams, in case the
+contest should lie between that gentleman and General Jackson. My last
+interview with him was, I think, the day before his departure, when he was
+still more explicit, as it was then certain that the election would be
+transferred to that tribunal, and highly probable that he would not be
+among the number returned. In the course of this conversation, I took
+occasion to express my sentiments with respect to the delicate and
+difficult circumstances under which he would be placed. He remarked that I
+could not more fully apprehend them than he did himself; but that nothing
+should deter him from the duty of giving his vote; and that no state of
+things could arise that would justify him in preferring General Jackson to
+Mr. Adams, or induce him to support the former. So decisive, indeed, were
+his declarations on this subject, that had he voted otherwise than he did,
+I should have been compelled to regard him as deserving that species of
+censure which has been cast upon him for constantly adhering to an early
+and deliberate resolution."
+
+It was thought, by some of Mr. Clay's friends, that he erred in judgment
+in accepting the office of Secretary of State, as it would tend to
+strengthen his enemies in their efforts to fix upon him the charge of
+corruption. Among those entertaining this opinion was Mr. Crawford,
+himself one of the three presidential candidates returned to the House of
+Representatives. In a letter to Mr. Clay he says:--
+
+"I hope you know me too well to suppose that I have countenanced the
+charge of corruption which has been reiterated against you. The truth is,
+I approved of your vote when it was given, and should have voted as you
+did between Jackson and Adams. But candor compells me to say, that I
+disapproved of your accepting an office under him."
+
+In replying to this letter Mr. Clay remarked:--
+
+"I do, my dear sir, know you too well to suppose that you ever
+countenanced the charge of corruption against me. No man of sense and
+candor--at least none that know me--ever could or did countenance it. Your
+frank admission that you would have voted as I did, between Mr. Adams and
+Gen. Jackson, accords with the estimate I have ever made of your
+intelligence, your independence, and your patriotism. Nor am I at all
+surprised, or dissatisfied, with the expression of your opinion, that I
+erred in accepting the place which I now hold. * * * * * * * The truth is,
+as I have often said, my condition was one full of embarrassments,
+whatever way I might act. My own judgment was rather opposed to my
+acceptance of the department of state. But my friends--and let me add, two
+of your best friends, Mr. McLane of Delaware and Mr. Forsyth--urged us
+strongly not to decline it. It was represented by my friends, that I
+should get no credit for the forbearance, but that, on the contrary, it
+would be said that my forbearance was evidence of my having made a
+bargain, though unwilling to execute it. * * * * * * * * These and other
+similar arguments were pressed upon me; and after a week's deliberation, I
+yielded to their force. It is quite possible that I may have erred * * * *
+* * I shall, at least, have no cause of self-reproach."
+
+In 1829, after Mr. Adams had retired from the Presidential chair, in reply
+to a letter from a committee of gentlemen in New Jersey, who had addressed
+him, he spoke of Mr. Clay as follows: "Upon him the foulest slanders have
+been showered. Long known and appreciated, as successively a member of
+both Houses of your national Legislature, as the unrivalled Speaker, and
+at the same time most efficient leader of debates in one of them; as an
+able and successful negotiator of your interests, in war and peace, with
+foreign powers, and as a powerful candidate for the highest of your
+trusts, the department of state itself was a station which by its bestowal
+could confer neither profit nor honor upon him, but upon which he has shed
+unfading honor, by the manner in which he has discharged its duties.
+Prejudice and passion have charged him with obtaining that office by
+bargain and corruption. Before you, my fellow-citizens, in the presence of
+our country and heaven, I pronounce that charge totally unfounded. This
+tribute of justice is due from me to him, and I seize with pleasure the
+opportunity afforded me by your letter, of discharging the obligation. As
+to my motives for tendering to him the department of state when I did, let
+that man who questions them come forward; let him look around among
+statesmen and legislators, of this nation, and of that day; let him then
+select and name the man whom, by his pre-eminent talents, by his splendid
+services, by his ardent patriotism, by his all-embracing public spirit, by
+his fervid eloquence in behalf of the rights and liberties of mankind, and
+by his long experience in the affairs of the Union, foreign and domestic,
+a President of the United States, intent only upon the welfare and honor
+of his country, ought to have preferred to HENRY CLAY. Let him name the
+man, and then judge you, my fellow-citizens, of my motives."
+
+When Mr. Adams was on a tour in the western States, in the fall of 1843,
+in addressing the chairman of the committee of his reception, at
+Maysville, Kentucky, he said: "I thank you, sir, for the opportunity you
+have given me of speaking of the great statesman who was associated with
+me in the administration of the General Government, at my earnest
+solicitation; who belongs not to Kentucky alone, but to the whole Union;
+and who is not only an honor to this State, and this nation, but to
+mankind. The charges to which you refer, after my term of service had
+expired, and it was proper for me to speak, I denied before the whole
+country. And I here reiterate and re-affirm that denial; and as I expect
+shortly to appear before my God, to answer for the conduct of my whole
+life, should these charges have found their way to the throne of eternal
+justice, I WILL in the presence of OMNIPOTENCE pronounce them FALSE."
+
+Before the world Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams stand acquitted of the calumny
+which their enemies endeavored, with an industry worthy a better cause, to
+heap upon them. The history of their country will do them ample justice.
+Their names shall stand upon its pages, illuminated by a well-earned fame
+for patriotism and faithful devotion to public interests, when those of
+their accusers will be lost in a merited oblivion.
+
+Mr. Adams, having entered upon his duties as President of the United
+States, prosecuted them with all that diligence and industrious
+application which was one of the leading characteristics of his life.
+Unawed by the opposition and the misrepresentations of his political
+enemies, and uncorrupted by the power and influence at his control, he
+pursued the even tenor of his way, having a single object in view, the
+promotion of the welfare of the people over whom he had been called to
+preside.
+
+In the meantime, the heart of the nation was being stirred by old and
+valued reminiscences. LA FAYETTE,--a hero of the revolution--the
+companion of Washington--whose blood had enriched American soil in
+defence of American freedom--had expressed a wish to re-visit once more,
+before departing life, the scenes of his early struggles and well-earned
+glories. This intimation was first given in the following letter to Col.
+Willet, an old friend and fellow-soldier of La Fayette, who was then
+still living in New-York.
+
+                                                    "Paris, July 15, 1822.
+"My DEAR SIR:--I avail myself of a good opportunity to remind you of your
+old friend and fellow-soldier, in whose heart no time nor distance can
+abate the patriotic remembrance and personal affections of our
+revolutionary times. We remain but too few survivors of that glorious
+epoch, in which the fate of two hemispheres has been decided. It is an
+additional monitor to think more of the ties of brotherly friendship which
+united us. May it be in my power, before I join our departed companions,
+to visit such of them as are still inhabitants of the United States, and
+to tell you personally, my dear Willet, how affectionately
+                             "I am your sincere friend,   LA FAYETTE."
+
+Intelligence of this desire to visit America having reached Congress,
+resolutions were passed placing a Government ship at his disposal:--
+
+"Whereas that distinguished champion of freedom, and hero of our
+Revolution, the friend and associate of Washington, the Marquis de La
+Fayette, a volunteer General Officer in our Revolutionary War, has
+expressed an anxious desire to visit this country, the independence of
+which his valor, blood, and treasure, were so instrumental in achieving:
+Therefore--
+
+"Be it Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
+States of America, in Congress assembled, That the President of the United
+States be requested to communicate to the Marquis de La Fayette the
+expression of those sentiments of profound respect, gratitude, and
+affectionate attachment, which are cherished towards him by the Government
+and people of this country; and to assure him that the execution of his
+wish and intention to visit this country, will be hailed by the people and
+Government with patriotic pride and joy.
+
+"And be it further Resolved, That the President of the United States be
+requested to ascertain from the Marquis de La Fayette, the time when it
+will be most agreeable for him to perform his visit; and that he offer to
+the Marquis a conveyance to this country in one of our national ships."
+
+La Fayette modestly declined this offer of a public ship. He sailed from
+Havre in the packet-ship Cadmus, accompanied by his son, George
+Washington La Fayette, and arrived in New York on the 15th of August,
+1824.
+
+His reception at New York was sublime and brilliant in the extreme. The
+meeting between La Fayette, Col. Willet, Gen. Van Cortland, Gen.
+Clarkson, and other revolutionary worthies, was highly affecting. He knew
+them all. After the ceremony of embracing and congratulations were over,
+La Fayette sat down by the side of Col. Willet. "Do you remember," said
+the colonel, "at the battle of Monmouth, I was a volunteer aid to Gen.
+Scott? I saw you in the heat of battle, you were but a boy, but you were a
+serious and sedate lad." "Aye, aye," returned La Fayette, "I remember
+well. And on the Mohawk I sent you fifty Indians, and you wrote me that
+they set up such a yell that they frightened the British horse, and they
+ran one way, and the Indians another." Thus these veteran soldiers "fought
+their battles o'er again."
+
+From New York La Fayette proceeded on a tour throughout the United
+States. Everywhere he was received and honored, as "THE NATION'S GUEST."
+For more than a year, his journey was a complete ovation--a perpetual and
+splendid pageant. The people appeared delirious with joy and with anxiety
+to hail him, grasp him by the hand, and shower attentions and honors upon
+him. The gratitude and love of all persons, of every age, sex, and
+condition, seemed hardly to be restrained within bounds of propriety. As
+he passed through the country, every city, village, and hamlet, poured out
+its inhabitants en masse, to meet him. Celebrations, processions, dinners,
+illuminations, bonfires, parties, balls, serenades, and rejoicings of
+every description, attended his way, from the moment he set foot on the
+American soil, until his embarkation to return to his native France.
+
+The hearts of the people in the most distant parts of the Western
+Hemisphere were warmed and touched with the honors paid him in the United
+States. A letter written at that time from Buenos Ayres, says--"I have
+just received newspapers from the United States, informing me of the
+magnificent reception of Gen. La Fayette. I have never read newspapers
+with such exquisite delight as these; and I firmly believe there never was
+so interesting and glorious an event in the civilized world, in which all
+classes of people participated in the general joy, as on this occasion.
+There is an association of ideas connected with this event, that produces
+in my soul emotions I cannot express, and fills my heart with such
+grateful recollections as I cannot forget but with my existence. That ten
+millions of souls, actuated by pure sentiments of gratitude and
+friendship, should with one voice pronounce this individual the 'Guest of
+the Nation,' and pay him the highest honors the citizens of a free nation
+can offer, is an event which must excite the astonishment of Europe, and
+show the inestimable value of liberty."
+
+In June, 1825, La Fayette visited Boston, and on the 17th day of that
+month, it being the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, he
+participated in the ceremony of laying the corner stone of the monument in
+commemoration of that event, on Bunker Hill. During his tour at the east,
+he visited the venerable ex-President John Adams, at Quincy.
+
+But the time for his departure drew near. His journey had extended as far
+south as New Orleans, west to St. Louis, north and east to Massachusetts.
+He had passed through, or touched, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
+Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
+Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana,
+Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
+
+A new frigate, the Brandywine, named in honor of the gallant exploits of
+Gen. La Fayette at the battle of Brandywine, was provided by Congress to
+convey him to France. It was deemed appropriate that he should take final
+leave of the nation at the seat of government in Washington. President
+Adams invited him to pass a few weeks in the presidential mansion. Mr.
+Adams had been on intimate terms with La Fayette in his youth, with whom,
+it is said, he was a marked favorite. During his sojourn at the capitol,
+he visited ex-Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, at their several
+places of residence.
+
+Having paid his respects to these venerated sages, "the Nation's Guest"
+prepared to take his final departure from the midst of a grateful people.
+The 7th of September, 1825, was the day appointed for taking leave.  About
+12 o'clock, the officers of the General Government, civil, military, and
+naval, together with the authorities of Washington, Georgetown, and
+Alexandria, with multitudes of citizens and strangers, assembled in the
+President's house. La Fayette entered the great hall in silence, leaning
+on the Marshal of the District, and one of the sons of the President. Mr.
+Adams then with evident emotion, but with much dignity and firmness,
+addressed him in the following terms:--
+
+"GENERAL LA FAYETTE: It has been the good fortune of many of my fellow-
+citizens, during the course of the year now elapsed, upon your arrival at
+their respective places of abode to greet you with the welcome of the
+nation. The less pleasing task now devolves upon me, of bidding you, in
+the name of the nation, ADIEU!
+
+"It were no longer seasonable, and would be superfluous, to recapitulate
+the remarkable incidents of your early life--incidents which associated
+your name, fortunes, and reputation, in imperishable connection with the
+independence and history of the North American Union.
+
+"The part which you performed at that important juncture was marked with
+characters so peculiar, that, realizing the fairest fable of antiquity,
+its parallel could scarcely be found in the authentic records of human
+history.
+
+"You deliberately and perseveringly preferred toil, danger, the endurance
+of every hardship, and privation of every comfort, in defence of a holy
+cause, to inglorious ease, and the allurements of rank, affluence, and
+unrestrained youth, at the most splendid and fascinating court of Europe.
+
+"That this choice was not less wise than magnanimous, the sanction of half
+a century, and the gratulations of unnumbered voices, all unable to
+express the gratitude of the heart, with which your visit to this
+hemisphere has been welcomed, afford ample demonstration.
+
+"When the contest of freedom, to which you had repaired as a voluntary
+champion, had closed, by the complete triumph of her cause in this country
+of your adoption, you returned to fulfil the duties of the philanthropist
+and patriot, in the land of your nativity. There, in a consistent and
+undeviating career of forty years, you have maintained, through every
+vicissitude of alternate success and disappointment, the same glorious
+cause to which the first years of your active life had been devoted, the
+improvement of the moral and political condition of man.
+
+"Throughout that long succession of time, the people of the United States,
+for whom and with whom you have fought the battles of liberty, have been
+living in the full possession of its fruits; one of the happiest among the
+family of nations. Spreading in population; enlarging in territory; acting
+and suffering according to the condition of their nature; and laying the
+foundations of the greatest, and, we humbly hope, the most beneficent
+power, that ever regulated the concerns of man upon earth.
+
+"In that lapse of forty years, the generation of men with whom you
+co-operated in the conflict of arms, has nearly passed away. Of the
+general officers of the American army in that war, you alone survive. Of
+the sages who guided our councils; of the warriors who met the foe in the
+field, or upon the wave, with the exception of a few to whom unusual
+length of days has been allotted by Heaven, all now sleep with their
+fathers. A succeeding, and even a third generation, have arisen to take
+their places; and their children's children, while rising up to call them
+blessed, have been taught by them, as well as admonished by their own
+constant enjoyment of freedom, to include in every benison upon their
+fathers, the name of him, who came from afar, with them and in their cause
+to conquer or to fall.
+
+"The universal prevalence of these sentiments was signally manifested by a
+resolution of Congress, representing the whole people, and all the States
+of this Union, requesting the President of the United States to
+communicate to you the assurances of the grateful and affectionate
+attachment of this government and people, and desiring that a national
+ship might be employed, at your convenience, for your passage to the
+borders of our country.
+
+"The invitation was transmitted to you by my venerable predecessor,
+himself bound to you by the strongest ties of personal friendship; himself
+one of those whom the highest honors of his country had rewarded for blood
+early shed in her cause, and for a long life of devotion to her welfare.
+By him the services of a national ship were placed at your disposal. Your
+delicacy preferred a more private conveyance, and a full year has elapsed
+since you landed upon our shores. It were scarcely an exaggeration to say
+that it has been to the people of the Union a year of uninterrupted
+festivity and enjoyment, inspired by your presence. You have traversed the
+twenty-four States of this great confederacy--you have been received with
+rapture by the survivors of your earliest companions in arms-you have been
+hailed, as a long-absent parent, by their children, the men and women of
+the present age; and a rising generation, the hope of future time, in
+numbers surpassing the whole population of that day when you fought at the
+head and by the side of their forefathers, have vied with the scanty
+remnants of that hour of trial, in acclamations of joy, at beholding the
+face of him whom they feel to be the common benefactor of all. You have
+heard the mingled voices of the past, the present, and the future age,
+joining in one universal chorus of delight at your approach; and the
+shouts of unbidden thousands, which greeted your landing on the soil of
+freedom, have followed every step of your way, and still resound like the
+rushing of many waters, from every corner of our land.
+
+"You are now about to return to the country of your birth--of your
+ancestors--of your posterity. The executive Government of the Union,
+stimulated by the same feeling which had prompted the Congress to the
+designation of a national ship for your accommodation in coming hither,
+has destined the first service of a frigate, recently launched at this
+metropolis, to the less welcome, but equally distinguished trust, of
+conveying you home. The name of the ship has added one more memorial to
+distant regions and to future ages, of a stream already memorable at once
+in the story of your sufferings and of our independence.
+
+"The ship is now prepared for your reception, and equipped for sea. From
+the moment of her departure, the prayers of millions will ascend to
+heaven, that her passage may be prosperous, and your return to the bosom
+of your family as propitious to your happiness as your visit to this scene
+of your youthful glory has been to that of the American people.
+
+"Go then, our beloved friend: return to the land of brilliant genius, of
+generous sentiments, of heroic valor; to that beautiful France, the
+nursing mother of the twelfth Louis, and the fourth Henry; to the native
+soil of Bayard and Coligne, of Turenne and Catinat, of Fenelon and
+D'Aguesseau! In that illustrious catalogue of names, which she claims as
+of her children, and with honest pride holds up to the admiration of other
+nations, the name of LA FAYETTE has already for centuries been enrolled.
+And it shall henceforth burnish into brighter fame: for, if in after days,
+a Frenchman shall be called to indicate the character of his nation by
+that of one individual, during the age in which we live, the blood of
+lofty patriotism shall mantle in his cheek, the fire of conscious virtue
+shall sparkle in his eye, and he shall pronounce the name of LA FAYETTE.
+Yet we, too, and our children in life, and after death, shall claim you
+for our own. You are ours, by that more than patriotic self-devotion with
+which you flew to the aid of our fathers at the crisis of their fate: ours
+by that long series of years in which you have cherished us in your
+regard: ours by that unshaken sentiment of gratitude for your services,
+which is a precious portion of our inheritance: ours by that tie of love,
+stronger then death, which has linked your name, for the endless ages of
+time, with the name of WASHINGTON.
+
+"At the painful moment of parting from you, we take comfort in the
+thought, that wherever you may be, to the last pulsation of your heart,
+our country will ever be present to your affections; and a cheering
+consolation assures us that we are not called to sorrow, most of all, that
+we shall see your face no more. We shall indulge the pleasing anticipation
+of beholding our friend again. In the mean time, speaking in the name of
+the whole people of the United States, and at a loss only for language to
+give utterance to that feeling of attachment with which the heart of the
+nation beats, as beats the heart of one man--I bid you a reluctant and
+affectionate FAREWELL!!
+
+At the conclusion of this address, Gen. La Fayette replied as follows:--
+
+"Amidst all my obligations to the General Government, and particularly to
+you, sir, its respected Chief Magistrate, I have most thankfully to
+acknowledge the opportunity given me, at this solemn and painful moment,
+to present the people of the United States with a parting tribute of
+profound, inexpressible gratitude.
+
+"To have been in the infant and critical days of these States adopted by
+them as a favorite son; to have participated in the trials and perils of
+our unspotted struggle for independence, freedom, and equal rights, and in
+the foundation of the American era of a new social order, which has
+already pervaded this, and must, for the dignity and happiness of mankind,
+successively pervade every part of the other hemisphere; to have received,
+at every stage of the revolution, and during forty years after that
+period, from the people of the United State's and their Representatives at
+home and abroad, continual marks of their confidence and kindness,--has
+been the pride, the encouragement, the support of a long and eventful
+life.
+
+"But how could I find words to acknowledge that series of welcomes, those
+unbounded and universal displays of public affection, which have marked
+each step, each hour, of a twelvemonth's progress through the twenty-four
+States, and which, while they overwhelm my heart with grateful delight,
+have most satisfactorily evinced the concurrence of the people in the kind
+testimonies, in the immense favors bestowed on me by the several branches
+of their Representatives, in every part and at the central seat of the
+confederacy?
+
+"Yet gratifications still higher awaited me. In the wonders of creation
+and improvement that have met my enchanted eye, in the unparalleled and
+self-felt happiness of the people, in their rapid prosperity and insured
+security, public and private, in a practice of good order, the appendage
+of true freedom, and a national good sense, the final arbiter of all
+difficulties, I have had proudly to recognize a result of the republican
+principles for which we have fought, and a glorious demonstration to the
+most timid and prejudiced minds, of the superiority, over degrading
+aristocracy or despotism, of popular institutions, founded on the plain
+rights of man, and where the local rights of every section are preserved
+under a constitutional bond of union. The cherishing of that union between
+the States, as it has been the farewell entreaty of our great paternal
+Washington, and will ever have the dying prayer of every American patriot,
+so it has become the sacred pledge of the emancipation of the world; an
+object in which I am happy to observe that the American people, while they
+give the animating example of successful free institutions, in return for
+an evil entailed upon them by Europe, and of which a liberal and
+enlightened sense is everywhere more and more generally felt, show
+themselves every day more anxiously interested.
+
+"And now, sir, how can I do justice to my deep and lively feelings for the
+assurances, most peculiarly valued, of your esteem and friendship; for
+your so very kind references to old times--to my beloved associates--to
+the vicissitudes of my life; for your affecting picture of the blessings
+poured, by the several generations of the American people, on the
+remaining days of a delighted veteran; for your affectionate remarks on
+this sad hour of separation--on the country of my birth, full, I can say,
+of American sympathies--on the hope, so necessary to me, of my seeing
+again the country that has deigned, near a half a century ago, to call me
+hers? I shall content myself, refraining from superfluous repetitions, at
+once, before you, sir, and this respected circle, to proclaim my cordial
+confirmation of everyone of the sentiments which I have had daily
+opportunities publicly to utter, from the time when your venerable
+predecessor, my old brother in arms and friend, transmitted to me the
+honorable invitation of Congress, to this day, when you, my dear sir,
+whose friendly connection with me dates from your earliest youth, are
+going to consign me to the protection, across the Atlantic, of the heroic
+national flag, on board the splendid ship, the name of which has been not
+the least flattering and kind among the numberless favors conferred upon
+me.
+
+"God bless you, sir, and all who surround us. God bless the American
+people, each of their States, and the Federal Government. Accept this
+patriotic farewell of an overflowing heart. Such will be its last throb
+when it ceases to beat."
+
+As the last sentence of the farewell was pronounced, La Fayette advanced
+and took President Adams in his arms, while tears poured down his
+venerable cheeks. Retiring a few paces, he was overcome by his feelings,
+and again returned, and falling on the neck of Mr. Adams, exclaimed in
+broken accents, "God bless you!" It was a scene at once solemn and moving,
+as the sighs and tears of many who witnessed it bore testimony. Having
+recovered his self-possession, the General stretched out his hands, and
+was in a moment surrounded by the greetings of the whole assembly, who
+pressed upon him, each eager to seize, perhaps for the last time, that
+beloved hand which was opened so freely for our aid when aid was so
+precious, and which grasped with firm and undeviating hold the steel which
+so bravely helped to achieve our deliverance. The expression which now
+beamed from the face of this exalted man was of the finest and most
+touching kind. The hero was lost in the father and the friend. Dignity
+melted into subdued affection, and the friend of Washington seemed to
+linger with a mournful delight among the sons of his adopted country.
+
+A considerable period was then occupied in conversing with various
+individuals, while refreshments were presented to the company. The moment
+of departure at length arrived; and having once more pressed the hand of
+Mr. Adams, he entered the barouche, accompanied by the Secretaries of
+State, of the Treasury, and of the Navy, and passed from the capital of
+the Union. An immense procession accompanied him to the banks of the
+Potomac, where the steamboat Mount Vernon awaited to convey him down the
+river to the frigate Brandywine. The whole scene--the peals of artillery,
+the sounds of numerous military bands, the presence of the vast concourse
+of people, and the occasion that assembled them, produced emotions not
+easily described, but which every American heart can readily conceive. As
+the steamboat moved off, the deepest silence was observed by the whole
+multitude that lined the shore. The feelings that pervaded them was that
+of children bidding farewell to a venerated parent.
+
+When the boat came opposite the tomb of Washington, at Mount Vernon, it
+paused in its progress. La Fayette arose. The wonders which he had
+performed, for a man of his age, in successfully accomplishing labors
+enough to have tested his meridian vigor, whose animation rather resembled
+the spring than the winter of life, now seemed unequal to the task he was
+about to perform--to take a last look at "The tomb of Washington!" He
+advanced to the effort. A silence the most impressive reigned around, till
+the strains of sweet and plaintive music completed the grandeur and sacred
+solemnity of the scene. All hearts beat in unison with the throbbings of
+the veteran's bosom, as he looked, for the last time, on the sepulchre
+which contained the ashes of the first of men! He spoke not, but appeared
+absorbed in the mighty recollections which the place and the occasion
+inspired.
+
+After this scene, the boat resumed its course, and the next morning
+anchored in safety near the Brandywine. Here La Fayette took leave of
+the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, and the Navy, and the guests who
+had accompanied him from Washington, together with many military and naval
+officers and eminent citizens who had assembled in various crafts near the
+frigate to bid him farewell. The weather had been boisterous and rainy,
+but just as the affecting scene had closed, the sun burst forth to cheer a
+spectacle which will long be remembered, and formed a magnificent arch,
+reaching from shore to shore--the barque which was to bear the venerable
+chief being immediately in the centre. Propitious omen! Heaven smiles on
+the good deeds of men! And if ever there was a sublime and virtuous action
+to be blessed by heaven and admired by men, it is when a free and grateful
+people unite to do honor to their friend and benefactor![Footnote:
+National Intelligencer.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON--THEIR CORRESPONDENCE--THEIR DEATH--MR.
+WEBSTER'S EULOGY--JOHN Q. ADAMS VISITS QUINCY--HIS SPEECH AT THE PUBLIC
+SCHOOL DINNER IN FANEUIL HALL.
+
+The patriarchs John Adams and Thomas Jefferson still lingered on the
+shores of time. The former had attained the good old age of 90 years, and
+the latter 82. Mrs. Adams, the venerable companion of the ex-President,
+died in Quincy, on the 28th of Oct., 1818, aged 74 years. Although, amid
+the various political strifes through which they had passed during the
+half century they had taken prominent parts in the affairs of their
+country, Adams and Jefferson had frequently been arrayed in opposite
+parties, and cherished many views quite dissimilar, yet their private
+friendship and deep attachment had been unbroken. It continued to be
+cherished with generous warmth to the end of their days. This pleasing
+fact, together with the wonderful vigor of their minds in extreme old age,
+is proved by the following interesting correspondence between them, which
+took place four years before their decease:--
+
+  MR. JEFFERSON TO MR. ADAMS.
+
+                                            "Monticello, June 1, 1822.
+"It is very long, my dear sir, since I have written to you. My dislocated
+wrist is now become so stiff, that I write slowly, and with pain; and
+therefore write as little as I can. Yet it is due to mutual friendship, to
+ask once in a while how we do? The papers tell us that General Starke is
+off, at the age of ninety-three. ***** still lives at about the same age,
+cheerful, slender as a grasshopper, and so much without memory, that he
+scarcely recognizes the members of his household. An intimate friend of
+his called on him, not long since. It was difficult to make him recollect
+who he was, and sitting one hour, he told him the same story four times
+over. Is this life?--with laboring step
+
+  'To tread our former footsteps? pace the round
+  Eternal?--to beat and beat
+  The beaten track--to see what we have seen
+  To taste the tasted--o'er our palates to decant
+  Another vintage?'
+
+"It is, at most, but the life of a cabbage, surely not worth a wish. When
+all our faculties have left, or are leaving us, one by one, sight,
+hearing, memory, every avenue of pleasing sensation is closed, and
+athumy, debility, and malaise left in their places, when the friends of
+our youth are all gone, and a generation is risen around us whom we know
+not, is death an evil?
+
+  'When one by one our ties are torn,
+  And friend from friend is snatch'd forlorn;
+  When man is left alone to mourn,
+    Oh, then, how sweet it is to die!
+
+  'When trembling limbs refuse their weight,
+  And films slow gathering dim the sight;
+  When clouds obscure the mental light,
+  'Tis nature's kindest boon to die!'
+
+"I really think so. I have ever dreaded a doting old age; and my health
+has been generally so good, and is now so good, that I dread it still. The
+rapid decline of my strength during the last winter, has made me hope
+sometimes, that I see land. During summer, I enjoy its temperature, but I
+shudder at the approach of winter, and wish I could sleep through it, with
+the dormouse, and only wake with him in spring, if ever. They say that
+Starke could walk about his room. I am told you walk well and firmly. I
+can only reach my garden, and that with sensible fatigue. I ride, however,
+daily; but reading is my delight. I should wish never to put pen to paper;
+and the more because of the treacherous practice some people have, of
+publishing one's letters without leave. Lord Mansfield declared it a
+breach of trust, and punishable at law. I think it should be a
+penitentiary felony; yet you will have seen that they have drawn me out
+into the arena of the newspapers. Although I know it is too late for me to
+buckle on the armor of youth, yet my indignation would not permit me
+passively to receive the kick of an ass.
+
+"To return to the news of the day, it seems that the cannibals of Europe
+are going to eat one another again. A war between Russia and Turkey is
+like the battle of the kite and snake; whichever destroys the other,
+leaves a destroyer the less for the world. This pugnacious humor of
+mankind seems to be the law of his nature; one of the obstacles to too
+great multiplication, provided in the mechanism of the universe. The cocks
+of the hen-yard kill one another; bears, bulls, rams, do the same, and the
+horse in his wild state kills all the young males, until, worn down with
+age and war, some vigorous youth kills him. * * * * * * I hope we shall
+prove how much happier for man the Quaker policy is, and that the life of
+the feeder is better than that of the fighter. And it is some consolation
+that the desolation by these maniacs of one part of the earth is the means
+of improving it in other parts. Let the latter be our office; and let us
+milk the cow while the Russian holds her by the horns, and the Turk by the
+tail. God bless you, and give you health, strength, good spirits, and as
+much of life as you think worth having.
+                                                    THOMAS JEFFERSON."
+
+  MR. ADAMS' REPLY.
+                                               "Quincy, June 11, 1822.
+"DEAR SIR:--Half an hour ago I received, and this moment have heard read,
+for the third or fourth time, the best letter that ever was written by an
+octogenarian, dated June 1st.
+
+  * * * * * * * * * *
+
+"I have not sprained my wrist; but both my arms and hands are so
+overstrained that I cannot write a line. Poor Starke remembered nothing,
+and could talk of nothing but the battle of Bennington! ******** is not
+quite so reduced. I cannot mount my horse, but I can walk three miles over
+a rugged, rocky mountain, and have done it within a month; yet I feel,
+when sitting in my chair, as if I could not rise out of it; and when
+risen, as if I could not walk across the room. My sight is very dim,
+hearing pretty good, memory poor enough.
+
+"I answer your question,--Is death an evil? It is not an evil. It is a
+blessing to the individual and to the world; yet we ought not to wish for
+it, till life becomes insupportable. We must wait the pleasure and
+convenience of the 'Great Teacher.' Winter is as terrible to me as to you.
+I am almost reduced in it to the life of a bear or a torpid swallow. I
+cannot read, but my delight is to hear others read; and I tax all my
+friends most unmercifully and tyrannically against their consent.
+
+"The ass has kicked in vain; all men say the dull animal has missed the
+mark.
+
+"This globe is a theatre of war; its inhabitants are all heroes. The
+little eels in vinegar, and the animalcules in pepper-water, I believe,
+are quarrelsome. The bees are as warlike as the Romans, Russians, Britons,
+or Frenchmen. Ants, caterpillars, and canker-worms are the only tribes
+among whom I have not seen battles; and Heaven itself, if we believe
+Hindoos, Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, has not always been at peace.
+We need not trouble ourselves about these things, nor fret ourselves
+because of evil doers; but safely trust the 'Ruler with his skies.' Nor
+need we dread the approach of dotage; let it come if it must. ******, it
+seems, still delights in his four stories; and Starke remembered to the
+last his Bennington, and exulted in his glory; the worst of the evil is,
+that our friends will suffer more by our imbecility than we ourselves.
+*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
+"In wishing for your health and happiness, I am very selfish; for I hope
+for more letters. This is worth more than five hundred dollars to me; for
+it has already given me, and will continue to give me, more pleasure than
+a thousand. Mr. Jay, who is about your age, I am told, experiences more
+decay than you do.
+                            "I am your old friend,
+                                                   "JOHN ADAMS."
+
+This correspondence excited attention in Europe. The editor of the London
+Morning Chronicle prefaces it with the following remarks:--
+
+"What a contrast the following correspondence of the two rival Presidents
+of the greatest Republic of the world, reflecting an old age dedicated to
+virtue, temperance, and philosophy, presents to the heart-sickening
+details, occasionally disclosed to us, of the miserable beings who fill
+the thrones of the continent. There is not, perhaps, one sovereign of the
+continent, who in any sense of the word can be said to honor our nature,
+while many make us almost ashamed of it. The curtain is seldom drawn aside
+without exhibiting to us beings worn out with vicious indulgence, diseased
+in mind, if not in body, the creatures of caprice and insensibility. On
+the other hand, since the foundation of the American Republic, the chair
+has never been filled by a man, for whose life (to say the least,) any
+American need once to blush. It must, therefore, be some compensation to
+the Americans for the absence of pure monarchy, that when they look
+upwards their eyes are not always met by vice, and meannesss, and often
+idiocy."
+
+John Adams joined his fellow-citizens of Quincy, Mass., in celebrating the
+4th of July, 1823, at the age of 88 years. Being called upon for a toast,
+he gave the following:--
+
+"The excellent President, Governor, Ambassador, and Chief Justice, JOHN
+JAY, whose name, by accident, was not subscribed on the DECLARATION OF
+INDEPENDENCE, as it ought to have been, for he was one of its ablest and
+faithfullest supporters.--A splendid star just setting below the
+horizon." It would be difficult (said the Boston Patriot,) fully to
+describe the delicate manner in which this toast was received and noticed
+by the company. Instead of loud acclamations, which succeeded the other
+toasts, it was followed by soft and interrupted interjections and
+aspirations, as if each individual was casting up an ejaculatory prayer,
+that the two illustrious sages might pass the remainder of their days in
+tranquillity and ease, and finally be landed on the blissful shores of a
+happy eternity.
+
+In September, 1825, President Adams, with his family, left Washington, on
+a visit to his venerable father, at Quincy. He travelled without
+ostentation, and especially requested that no public display might be
+manifested. At Philadelphia, Mrs. Adams was taken ill, and the President
+was compelled to proceed without her. This visit was of short duration.
+Called back to Washington by public affairs, he left Quincy on the 14th of
+October. It was his last interview on earth with his venerated parent. The
+aged patriarch had lived to see his country emancipated from foreign
+thraldom, its independence acknowledged, its union consummated, its
+prosperity and perpetuity resting on an immovable foundation, and his son
+elevated to the highest office in its gift. It was enough! His work
+accomplished--the book of his eventful life written and sealed for
+immortality--he was ready to depart and be at peace.
+
+The 4th of July, 1826, will long be memorable for one of the most
+remarkable coincidences that has ever taken place in the history of
+nations. It was the fiftieth anniversary--the "JUBILEE"--of American
+independence! Preparations had been made throughout the Union, to
+celebrate the day with unusual pomp and display.  John Adams and Thomas
+Jefferson had both been invited to participate in the festivities of the
+occasion, at their several places of abode. But a higher summons awaited
+them! they were bidden to a "jubilee" above, which shall have no end! On
+that half-century anniversary of American Independence, at nearly the same
+hour of the day, the spirits of Adams and Jefferson took their departure
+from earth!! Amid the rejoicings of the people, the peals of artillery,
+the strains of music, the exultations of a great nation in the enjoyment
+of freedom, peace, and happiness, they were released from the toils of
+life, and allowed to enter on their rest.
+
+The one virtually the mover, the other the framer, of the immortal
+Declaration of Independence--they had together shared the dangers and the
+honors of the revolution--had served their country in various important
+and responsible capacities--had both received the highest honors in the
+gift of their fellow-citizens--had lived to see the nation to which they
+assisted in giving birth assume a proud stand among the nations of the
+earth--her free institutions framed, consolidated, tried, and matured--her
+commerce hovering over all seas--respected abroad, united, prosperous,
+happy at home--what more had earth in store for them? Together they had
+counselled--together they had dared the power of a proud and powerful
+Government--together they had toiled to build up a great and prosperous
+people--together they rejoiced in the success with which a wise and good
+Providence had crowned their labors--and together, on their country's
+natal day, amid the loud-swelling acclamations of the "national jubilee,"
+their freed spirits soared to light and glory above!
+
+The venerable ex-President Adams had been failing for several days before
+the 4th of July. In reply to an invitation from a committee of the
+citizens of Quincy, to unite with them in celebrating the fiftieth
+anniversary of American independence, he had written a note, from which
+the following is an extract:--
+
+"The present feeble state of my health will not permit me to indulge the
+hope of participating with more than my best wishes, in the joys, and
+festivities, and the solemn services of that day on which will be
+completed the fiftieth year from its birth, of the independence of the
+United States: a memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined
+in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to
+the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall,
+in time to come, be shaped by the human mind."
+
+Being solicited for a toast, to accompany the letter, he
+gave--"INDEPENDENCE FOREVER!!" He was asked if anything should be added to
+it. Immediately he replied--"Not a word!" This toast was drank at the
+celebration in Quincy, about fifty minutes before the departure of the
+venerated statesman from earth.
+
+On the morning of the 4th, which was ushered in by the ringing of bells
+and firing of cannon, he was asked if he knew what day it was?--"O yes,"
+he replied, "it is the glorious fourth of July--God bless it!--God bless
+you all!!" In the course of the day he said, "It is a great and glorious
+day." The last words he uttered were, "Jefferson survives!" But the spirit
+of Jefferson had already left the body, and was hovering over the earth,
+to accompany his to higher and brighter scenes of existence!!
+
+Mr. Jefferson had been sensible for some days, that his last hour was at
+hand. He conversed with his family and friends, with the utmost composure,
+of his departure, and gave directions concerning his coffin and his
+funeral. He was desirous that the latter should take place at Monticello,
+and that it should be without any display or parade. On Monday he inquired
+the day of the month? Being told it was the 3d of July, he expressed an
+earnest desire that he might be allowed to behold the light of the next
+day--the fiftieth anniversary of American independence. His prayer was
+heard and answered. He beheld the rising of that sun on the morning of the
+4th, which was to set on a nation mourning the loss of two of its noblest
+benefactors, and its brightest ornaments. He was cheerful to the last. A
+day or two previous, being in great pain, he said to his physician--"Well,
+doctor, a few hours more, and the struggle will be over."
+
+On the morning of the last day, as the physician entered his apartment, he
+said, "You see, doctor, I am here yet." On a member of his family
+expressing an opinion that he was better, he replied, with evident
+impatience--"Do not imagine for a moment that I feel the smallest
+solicitude as to the result." Some individual present uttering a hope that
+he might recover, he asked with a smile--"Do you think I fear to die?"
+Thus departed Thomas Jefferson. His last words were--"I resign my soul to
+my God, and my daughter to my country!"
+
+President J. Q. Adams receiving intelligence at Washington of the illness
+of his father, started immediately for Quincy. Shortly before arriving at
+Baltimore, tidings reached him that the patriarch had gone to his rest.
+Mr. Adams pursued his journey, but did not arrive at Quincy in season to
+be present at the funeral. This took place on the 7th of July. It was
+attended by a large body of citizens, assembled from the surrounding
+region. The funeral services took place at the Unitarian church in Quincy,
+on which occasion an impressive discourse was delivered by the Pastor,
+Rev. Mr. Whitney. The pall-bearers were Judge Davis, President Kirkland,
+Gov. Lincoln, Hon. Mr. Greenleaf, Judge Story, and Lieut. Gov. Winthrop.
+During the exercises and the moving of the procession, minute guns were
+fired from Mount Wallaston, and from various eminences in the adjoining
+towns, and every mark of respect was paid to the remains of one who filled
+so high a place in the history of his country and the regard of his
+fellow-citizens.
+
+On the 2d of August, Mr. Webster delivered a eulogy on the death of Adams
+and Jefferson, before the city authorities of Boston, and a vast body of
+people, in Faneuil Hall. President Adams was present. It was one of Mr.
+Webster's most eloquent and successful attempts. He commenced as
+follows:--
+
+"This is an unaccustomed spectacle. For the first time, fellow-citizens,
+badges of mourning shroud the columns and overhang the arches of this
+hall. These walls, which were consecrated, so long ago, to the cause of
+American liberty, which witnessed her infant struggles and rung with the
+shouts of her earliest victories, proclaim now, that distinguished friends
+and champions of that great cause have fallen. It is right that it should
+be thus. The tears which flow, and the honors that are paid, when the
+Founders of the Republic die, give hope that the Republic itself may be
+immortal. It is fit, that by public assembly and solemn observance, by
+anthem and by eulogy, we commemorate the services of national benefactors,
+extol their virtues, and render thanks to God for eminent blessings, early
+given and long continued to our favored country.
+
+"ADAMS and JEFFERSON are no more; and we are assembled, fellow-citizens,
+the aged, the middle-aged and the young, by the spontaneous impulse of
+all, under the authority of the municipal government, with the presence of
+the chief magistrate of the commonwealth, and others of its official
+representatives, the university, and the learned societies, to bear our
+part in these manifestations of respect and gratitude, which universally
+pervade the land. ADAMS and JEFFERSON are no more. On our fiftieth
+anniversary, the great national jubilee, in the very hour of public
+rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and re-echoing voices of thanksgiving,
+while their own names were on all tongues, they took their flight together
+to the world of spirits."
+
+The conclusion of Mr. Webster's eulogy was equally impressive:
+
+"Fellow-citizens: I will detain you no longer by this faint and feeble
+tribute to the illustrious dead. Even in other hands, adequate justice
+could not be performed, within the limits of this occasion. Their highest,
+their best praise, is your deep conviction of their merits, your
+affectionate gratitude for their labors and services. It is not my voice,
+it is this cessation of ordinary pursuits, this arresting of all
+attention, those solemn ceremonies, and this crowded house, which speak
+their eulogy. Their fame, indeed, is safe. That is now treasured up,
+beyond the reach of accident. Although no sculptured marble should rise to
+their memory, nor engraved stone bear record to their deeds, yet will
+their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored. Marble columns
+may, indeed, moulder into dust, time may erase all impress from the
+crumbling stone, but their fame remains; for with American liberty it
+rose, and with American liberty only can it perish. It was the last
+swelling peal of yonder choir--'THEIR BODIES ARE BURIED IN PEACE, BUT
+THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE!' I catch that solemn song, I echo that lofty
+strain of funeral triumph! 'Their name liveth evermore.'
+
+* * * * * * * *
+
+"It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that
+with America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This
+era is distinguished by free representative governments, by entire
+religious liberty, by improved systems of national intercourse, by a
+newly-awakened and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a
+diffusion of knowledge through the community, such as has been before
+altogether unknown and unheard of. America, America, our country,
+fellow-citizens, our own dear and native land, is inseparably connected,
+fast bound up, in fortune and by fate, with these great interests. If they
+fall, we fall with them; if they stand, it will be because we have
+upholden them. Let us contemplate, then, this connection, which binds the
+prosperity of others to our own; and let us manfully discharge all the
+duties which it imposes. If we cherish the virtues and the principles of
+our fathers, heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty,
+and human happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us: great examples are before
+us: our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path: WASHINGTON is in
+the clear upper sky. These other stars have now joined the American
+constellation; they circle around their centre, and the heavens beam with
+a new light. Beneath this illumination, let us walk the course of life,
+and at its close devoutly commend our beloved country, the common parent
+of us all, to the Divine Benignity."
+
+During this visit at the East, at this time, President J. Q. Adams
+attended the annual examination of the public schools in Boston, and was
+present at the public dinner given in Faneuil Hall, to the school
+committee, teachers, and most meritorious scholars. In reply to a
+complimentary toast from the Mayor, Mr. Adams responded as follows:--
+
+"MR. MAYOR, AND MY FELLOW-CITIZENS OF BOSTON:--A few days since, we were
+assembled in this Hall, as the house of mourning--in commemoration of the
+two last survivors of that day which had proclaimed at once our
+independence and our existence as a nation. We are now assembled within
+the same walls, at the house of feasting--at the festival of fathers
+rejoicing in the progressive improvement of their children.
+
+"We have been told by the wisest man of antiquity, that it is better to go
+to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting. How emphatically
+true would that sentence be, if the house of mourning were always such as
+this hall but so recently exhibited!--a mourning of gratitude--a mourning
+of faithful affection--a mourning full of consolation and joy. And yet,
+could the wisest of men now look down upon this happy meeting--of parents
+partaking together of the bounties of Providence, in mutual gratulation
+with each other at the advances of their offspring in moral and
+intellectual cultivation--would he, could he, my friends, have said that
+it is better to go to the house of mourning than to such a house of
+feasting?
+
+"For is not the spirit of that solemnity, and of this, effectively the
+same? If that was the commemoration of the good deeds of your forefathers,
+may not this be called the commemoration of the future achievements of
+your sons? If that day was dedicated to the blessed memory of the past, is
+not this devoted to the no less blessed hope of the future? It was from
+schools of public instruction, instituted by our forefathers, that the
+light burst forth. It was in the primary schools; it was by the midnight
+lamps of Harvard hall, that were conceived and matured, as it was within
+these hallowed walls that were first resounded the accents of that
+independence which is now canonized in the memory of those by whom it was
+proclaimed.
+
+"Was it not there that were formed, to say nothing of him 'fit for the
+praise of any tongue but mine,'--but was it not there that were formed,
+and prepared for the conflicts of the mind, for the intellectual warfare
+which distinguishes your Revolution from all the brutal butcheries of
+vulgar war, your James Otis, your John Hancock, your Samuel Adams, your
+Robert Treat Paine, your Elbridge Gerry, your James and your Joseph
+Warren, and last, not least, your Josiah Quincy, so worthily represented
+by your Chief Magistrate here at my side?
+
+"Indulge me, fellow-citizens, with the remark, that I have been called to
+answer to myself these questions, before I could enjoy the happiness, at
+the very kind invitation of your Mayor and Aldermen, of presenting myself
+among you this day.
+
+"In conformity to my own inclinations, and to the usages of society, I
+have deemed it proper, on the recent bereavement I have sustained, to
+withdraw for a time from the festive intercourse of the world, and in
+retirement, so far as may be consistent with the discharge of public
+trusts, to prepare for and perform the additional duties devolving upon
+me, as a son, and as a parent, from this visitation of heaven. To that
+retirement I have hitherto been confined; and in departing from it for a
+single day, I have needed an apology to myself, as I trust I shall need
+one to you. Seek for it, my fellow-citizens in your own paternal hearts. I
+have been unable to resist the invitation of the authorities of this my
+own almost native city, to mingle with her inhabitants in the joyous
+festivities of this occasion--and, after witnessing, in the visitation of
+the schools, hundreds and thousands of the rising generation training 'up
+in the way they should go;' to come here and behold the distinguished
+proficients of the schools sharing at the social board the pleasures of
+their fathers, and to congratulate the fathers on the growing virtues and
+brightening talents of their children.
+
+"But, fellow-citizens, I will no longer trespass upon your indulgence. I
+thank you for the sentiment with which you have honored me. I thank you
+for the many affecting testimonials of kindness and sympathy which I have
+so often received at your hands; and will give you as a token of my good
+wishes, not yourselves, but objects dearer to your hearts. Mr. Mayor, I
+propose to you for a toast--
+
+"The blooming youth of Boston--May the maturity of the fruit be equal to
+the promise of the blossom."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MR. ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION--REFUSES TO REMOVE POLITICAL OPPOSERS FROM
+OFFICE--URGES THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS--APPOINTS
+COMMISSIONERS TO THE CONGRESS OF PANAMA--HIS POLICY TOWARD THE INDIAN
+TRIBES--HIS SPEECH ON BREAKING GROUND FOR THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO
+CANAL--BITTER OPPOSITION TO HIS ADMINISTRATION--FAILS OF RE-ELECTION TO
+THE PRESIDENCY--RETIRES FROM OFFICE.
+
+In administering the Government of the United States, Mr. Adams adhered
+with rigid fidelity to the principles embodied in his inaugural speech.
+Believing that "the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of
+the people the end, of all legitimate government on earth," it was his
+constant aim to act up to this patriotic principle in the discharge of his
+duties as chief magistrate. He was emphatically the President of the
+entire people, and not of a section, or a party. His administration was
+truly national in its scope, its objects, and its results. His views of
+the sacred nature of the trust imposed upon him by his fellow-citizens
+were too exalted to allow him to desecrate the power with which it clothed
+him to the promotion of party or personal interests. Although not
+unmindful of the party which elevated him to the presidency, nor forgetful
+of the claims of those who yielded sympathy and support to the measures of
+his administration, yet in all his doings in this respect, his primary aim
+was the general good. Simply a friendship for him, or his measures,
+without other and requisite qualifications, would not ensure from Mr.
+Adams an appointment to office. Neither did an opposition to his
+administration alone, except there was a marked practical unfitness for
+office, ever induce him to remove an individual from a public station.
+
+Looking back to the administration of Mr. Adams from the present day, and
+comparing it with those which have succeeded it, or even those which
+preceded it, the acknowledgment must be made by all candid minds, that it
+will lose nothing in purity, patriotism, and fidelity, in the discharge of
+all its trusts. He was utterly incapable of proscription for opinion's
+sake. With a stern integrity worthy the highest admiration, and which the
+people at that period were far too slow to acknowledge and appreciate, he
+would not displace his most active political opponents from public
+stations he found them occupying, provided they were competent to their
+duty and faithful in the discharge of the same. "It was in my hearing
+that, to a representation that a certain important and influential
+functionary of the General Government in New York was using the power of
+his office adversely to Mr. Adams's re-election, and that he ought to
+desist or be removed, Mr. Adams made this reply:--'That gentleman is one
+of the best officers in the public service. I have had occasion to know
+his diligence, exactness, and punctuality. On public grounds, therefore,
+there is no cause of complaint against him, and upon no other will I
+remove him. If I cannot administer the Government on these principles, I
+am content to go back to Quincy!'" [Footnote: King's Eulogy on John Quincy
+Adams.] Being in Baltimore on a certain occasion, among those introduced
+to him was a gentleman who accosted him thus--"Mr. President, though I
+differ from you in opinion, I am glad to find you in good health." The
+President gave him a hearty shake of the hand, and replied,--"Sir, in our
+happy and free country, we can differ in opinion without being enemies."
+
+These anecdotes illustrate the character and principles of Mr. Adams. He
+knew nothing of the jealousy and bitterness which are gendered, in little
+minds and hearts, by disparities of sentiment. Freedom of opinion he
+considered the birthright of every American citizen, and he would in no
+instance be the instrument of inflicting punishment upon the head of any
+man on account of its exercise. High and pure in all his aims, he sought
+to reach them by means of a corresponding character. If he could not
+succeed in the use of such instruments, he was content to meet defeat. The
+rule by which he was governed in the discharge of his official duties, is
+beautifully expressed by the dramatic bard:--
+
+                         "Be just and fear not.
+Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy COUNTRY'S,
+Thy GOD'S, and TRUTH'S. Then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
+Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!"
+
+In the truly republican position which Mr. Adams took in regard to
+appointments to office, and which, it is humiliating to believe, was one
+means of his subsequent defeat, he but faithfully imitated the example of
+"the Father of his country." When Gen. Washington occupied the
+presidential chair, application was made for the appointment of one of his
+old and intimate friends to a lucrative office. At the same time a
+petition was received asking the same station for a most determined
+political opponent. The latter received the appointment. The friend was
+greatly disappointed and hurt in his feelings at his defeat. Let the
+explanation of Washington be noted and ever remembered:--"My friend," said
+he, "I receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to my house, and
+welcome to my heart; but with all his good qualities he is not a man of
+business. His opponent, with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man
+of business. My private feelings have nothing to do in the case. I am not
+George Washington, but President of the United States. As George
+Washington, I would do this man any kindness in my power--as President of
+the United States, I can do nothing."
+
+The period of Mr. Adams's administration, was not one which admitted of
+acts calculated to rivet the attention, or excite the admiration and
+applause of the multitude. No crisis occurred in national affairs--no
+imminent peril from without, or danger within, threatened the well-being
+of the country! Quietness reigned throughout the world, and the nations
+were allowed once more to cultivate the arts of peace, to enlarge the
+operations of commerce, and to fix their attention on domestic
+interests--the only true fountain of national prosperity. But though
+lacking in some of the more striking elements of popularity, the
+administration of Mr. Adams was preeminently useful in all its measures
+and influences. During no Presidential term since the organization of the
+Government, has more been done to consolidate the Union, and develop its
+resources, and lay the foundations of national strength and prosperity.
+
+The two great interests which, perhaps, received the largest share of
+attention from Mr. Adams' administration, were internal improvements and
+domestic manufactures. A special attention to these subjects was
+recommended in his messages to Congress. And throughout his term, he
+failed not to urge these vital matters upon the attention of the people,
+and their representatives. He recommended the opening of national roads
+and canals--the improvement of the navigation of rivers, and the safety of
+harbors--the survey of our coasts, the erection of light houses, piers,
+and breakwaters. Whatever tended to facilitate communication and
+transportation between extreme portions of the Union--to bring the people
+of distant sections into a more direct intercourse with each other, and
+bind them together by ties of a business, social and friendly nature--to
+promote enterprize, industry, and enlarged views of national and
+individual prosperity--obtained his earnest sanction and recommendation.
+To encourage home labor--to protect our infant manufactories from a fatal
+competition with foreign pauper wages--to foster and build up in the bosom
+of the country a system of domestic production, which should not only
+supply home consumption, and afford a home market for raw materials and
+provisions, the produce of our own soil, but enable us in due time to
+compete with other nations in sending our manufactures to foreign
+markets--he yielded all his influence to the levying of protective duties
+on foreign articles, especially such as could be produced in our own
+country. The wisdom of this policy, its direct tendency to promote
+national wealth and strength, and to render the Union truly independent of
+the fluctuations and vicissitudes of foreign countries, cannot be doubted,
+it would seem, by those possessing clear minds and sound judgment, of all
+parties.
+
+Under the faithful supervision of one so vigilant as Mr. Adams, the
+foreign relations of the Government could not have been neglected. The
+intimate knowledge of the condition of foreign nations, their resources
+and their wants, which was possessed by himself and by Mr. Clay, the
+Secretary of State, afforded facilities in this department, from which the
+country reaped the richest benefit. During the four years of his
+administration, more treaties were negotiated at Washington than during
+the entire thirty-six years through which the preceding administrations
+had extended. New treaties of amity, navigation and commerce, were
+concluded with Austria, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic League, Prussia,
+Colombia, and Central America. Commercial difficulties and various
+arrangements of a satisfactory character, were settled with the
+Netherlands, and other European Governments. The claims of our citizens
+against Sweden, Denmark and Brazil, for spoilations of commerce, were
+satisfactorily consummated.
+
+"As time advances, the evidences are accumulating on all sides, that the
+administration of John Quincy Adams was one of the most wise, patriotic,
+pacific, just, and wealth-producing, in the history of the country; and no
+small part of that benefit may justly be ascribed to the aid he received
+from his Secretary of State. Mr. Adams himself was a great statesman, bred
+in the school of statesmen, and all his life exercised in the business of
+state, with recognized skill, and approved fidelity. The seven years
+immediately preceding the administration of Mr. Adams, was a period of
+great commercial embarrassment and distress; and the seven years
+subsequent to his entrance on the duties of chief executive, was a period
+of great public and private prosperity." [Footnote: Cotton's Life of
+Clay.]
+
+While Mr. Adams was thus seeking to foster and encourage the industrial
+and monetary interests of the country, he was not forgetful of the
+important claims of literature and science. President Washington, during
+his administration, had repeatedly urged on Congress the importance of
+establishing a national university at the capital; and he had located and
+bequeathed a site for that purpose. But his appeals on this subject had
+been in vain. In Mr. Adams's first message, he earnestly called on
+Congress to carry into execution this recommendation of the Father of his
+Country--insisting that "among the first, perhaps the very first
+instrument for the improvement of the condition of men, is knowledge; and
+to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the
+comforts, and the enjoyments of human life, public institutions and
+seminaries of learning are essential."
+
+In the same message Mr. Adams recommended the establishment of a national
+observatory. "Connected with the establishment of an university," he said
+"or, separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical
+observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in
+constant attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and
+for the periodical publication of his observations. It is with no feeling
+of pride, as an American, that the remark may be made, that, on the
+comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing
+upwards of one hundred and thirty of these light-houses in the skies;
+while, throughout the whole American hemisphere, there is not one. If we
+reflect a moment upon the discoveries which, in the last four centuries,
+have been made in the physical constitution of the universe, by the means
+of these buildings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of
+their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over
+our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which
+we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting
+ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have
+neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth
+revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?"
+
+It is humiliating to reflect that neither of these recommendations
+received an encouraging response from Congress. The latter suggestion,
+indeed, excited the ridicule of many of the opposers of Mr. Adams, and "a
+light-house in the skies," became a term of reproach in their midst. In
+this, however, it must be confessed, their ridicule was greatly at the
+expense of their intelligence, their public spirit, and their devotion to
+the highest interests of man. There are few reflections more mortifying to
+an American citizen, than that while so large a portion of the resources
+of the national Government have been exhausted in prosecuting party
+measures, rewarding partisan services, and promoting sectional and
+personal schemes, little or nothing has been devoted to the encouragement
+of the arts and sciences, and the cultivation of those higher walks of
+human attainment which exalt and refine a people, and fit them for the
+purest and sweetest enjoyments of life.
+
+It was during the first year of his administration, that the attention of
+Mr. Adams was called to a proposed Congress of all the Republics on the
+American Continent, to meet at Panama. The objects designed to be
+accomplished by such a Congress have been variously stated. It has been
+believed by some to have been called for the purpose of opposing a
+supposed project, entertained by the Allied Powers of Europe, of combining
+for the purpose of reducing the American Republics to their former
+condition of European vassalage. Be this as it may, the Panama Congress,
+among its objects, aimed at the cementing of the friendly relations of all
+the independent States of America, and the forming of a kind of mutual
+council, to act as an umpire to settle the differences which might arise
+between them.
+
+The United States was invited to send representatives to Panama. Mr.
+Adams, as President, in view of the beneficial influences which in various
+ways might flow from such a meeting, accepted the invitation, with the
+understanding that the Government of the United States would take no part
+that could conflict with its neutral position, in the wars which might
+then be in existence between any of the South American Republics and other
+powers. The acceptance of this invitation was announced by Mr. Adams in
+his first message to Congress. This was immediately followed by the
+nomination of Messrs. Richard C. Anderson and John Sargeant, as
+commissioners to the Congress of Panama, and Wm. B. Rochester, of New
+York, as secretary of the commission. These nominations were confirmed by
+the Senate; and an appropriation was voted by the House of
+Representatives, after strong opposition and much delay, to carry the
+contemplated measure into effect.
+
+But the United States Government was never represented in the Panama
+Congress. The proceedings in the House of Representatives on this subject
+had been so protracted, that it was found too late for Mr. Sargeant to
+reach Panama in season for the meeting of the Congress, which took place
+on the 22nd of June, 1826. Mr. Anderson, who was then minister at
+Colombia, on receiving his instructions, commenced his journey to Panama;
+but on reaching Carthagena he was seized with a malignant fever, which
+terminated his existence.
+
+
+During the second session of the nineteenth Congress, the subject of
+commercial intercourse with the British West India Colonies was thoroughly
+discussed. The British Parliament had laid restrictions so onerous on the
+trade of the United States with these Colonies, that it could be pursued
+to very little profit. Bills were introduced into both houses of Congress,
+for the protection of the interests of American merchants, trading with
+the British Colonies; but the Senate and House failing to agree on the
+details of the proposed measures, nothing was done to effect the desired
+object. Congress having adjourned without passing any law to meet the
+restrictive measures of Great Britain, President Adams, on the 17th of
+March, 1827, agreeably to a law passed three years before, issued a
+proclamation closing the ports of the United States against vessels from
+the British colonies, until the restrictive measures of the British
+Government should be repealed.
+
+The policy pursued by Mr. Adams toward the Indian tribes within the United
+States, was pacific and humane. The position they held toward the General
+Government was of an unsettled and embarrassing character. Enjoying a
+species of independence, and subject to laws of their own enactment, they
+were, nevertheless, dependent on the Government of the United States for
+protection, and were, in fact, wholly at its disposal. Near the close of
+Mr. Monroe's administration, in a message to Congress, on the 27th of
+January, 1825, he proposed a plan to remove the tribes scattered through
+the several States, to a tract of country west of the Mississippi, and to
+unite them in one nation, with some plan for their government and
+civilization. This proposition meeting with a decided opposition on the
+part of many of the Indians, was modified during Mr. Adams's
+administration. It finally resulted in a plan of removing west of the
+Mississippi such individuals among the various tribes as would consent to
+go under the inducements held out; and allowing the remainder to continue
+in their old abode, occupying each a small tract of land. This policy has
+since been pursued by the General Government, and has resulted in the
+removal of most of the aborigines beyond the western shores of the
+Mississippi.
+
+These removals, however, have been attended with no little difficulty, and
+at times have led to collisions which have assumed a serious aspect. An
+instance of this description occurred during the first year Mr. Adams
+occupied the presidential chair. In 1802, a compact was formed between the
+General Government and the State of Georgia, in which it was agreed, that
+in consequence of the relinquishment, on the part of Georgia, of all her
+claim to the land set off in the then new Mississippi Territory, the
+General Government, at its own expense, should obtain a relinquishment,
+from the Creek Indians, of all their lands within the State of Georgia,
+"whenever it could be peaceably done upon reasonable terms."
+
+In compliance with this agreement, the United States had extinguished the
+Indian title to about fifteen millions of acres of land. At the close of
+Mr. Monroe's administration, over nine millions of acres were still
+retained by the Indians. The State authorities of Georgia became very
+anxious to obtain possession of this also. At the solicitation of Gov.
+Troup, President Madison sent two Commissioners to make a treaty with the
+Creeks, for the purchase of their lands, and the removal of the Indians
+beyond the Mississippi. But the Creeks, having begun to appreciate and
+enjoy the comforts of civilization, and the advantages of the arts and
+sciences, which had been introduced into their midst, refused to treat on
+the subject, and passed a law in the General Council of their nation,
+forbidding, on pain of death, the sale of any of their lands. After the
+close of the council, a few of the Creeks, influenced by a chief named
+M'Intosh, met the United States Commissioners, and formed a treaty on
+their own responsibility, ceding to the General Government all the Creek
+lands in Georgia and Alabama. When intelligence of this treaty was
+circulated among the Indians, they were filled with indignation. Their
+General Council met--resolved not to sanction a treaty obtained in a
+manner so dishonorable and illegal--and despatched a party of Indians to
+the residence of M'Intosh, who immediately shot him and another chief who
+had signed the treaty with him.
+
+This surreptitious treaty was transmitted to Washington, and under a
+misapprehension of the manner in which it was secured, was ratified by the
+Senate, on the 3d of March, 1825, the last day of Mr. Monroe's
+administration. Gov. Troup, acting under this treaty, sent surveyors into
+the Creek Territory, to lay out the land in lots, which were to be
+distributed among the white inhabitants of Georgia, by lottery. The
+Indians resisted this encroachment, and prepared to defend their rights by
+physical force--at the same time sending to Washington for protection from
+the General Government. The authorities of Georgia insisted upon a survey,
+and ordered out a body of militia to enforce it.
+
+On hearing of this state of affairs, President Adams despatched a special
+agent to inquire into the facts of the case. After due investigation, the
+agent reported that the treaty had been obtained by bad faith and
+corruption, and that the Creeks were almost unanimously opposed to the
+cession of their lands. On receiving this report, the President determined
+to prevent the survey ordered by the Governor of Georgia, until the matter
+could be submitted to Congress, and ordered Gen. Gaines to proceed to the
+Creek country with a body of United States troops, to prevent collision
+between the Indians and the Georgia forces.
+
+On the 5th of February, Mr. Adams transmitted a message to Congress,
+giving a statement of these transactions, and declaring his determination
+to fulfil the duty of protection the nation owed the Creeks, as guaranteed
+by treaty, by all the force at his command. "That the arm of military
+force," he continued, "will be resorted to only in the event of the
+failure of all other expedients provided by the laws, a pledge has been
+given by the forbearance to employ it at this time. It is submitted to the
+wisdom of Congress to determine whether any further acts of legislation
+may be necessary or expedient to meet the emergency which these
+transactions may produce."
+
+The committee of the House of Representatives, to which this message was
+referred, reported that it "is expedient to procure a cession of the
+Indian lands in the State of Georgia, and that until such a cession is
+procured, the law of the land, as set forth in the treaty at Washington,
+ought to be maintained by all necessary, constitutional, and legal means."
+The firmness and decision of President Adams undoubtedly prevented the
+unhappy consequences of a collision between the people of Georgia and the
+Creek Indians. A new negotiation was opened with the Indians, by direction
+of the President, which resulted in declaring the M'Intosh treaty null and
+void, and in obtaining, at length, a cession of all the lands of the
+Creeks within the limits of Georgia, to the General Government.
+
+
+As the friend and promoter of internal improvements, Mr. Adams was invited
+to be present at the interesting ceremony of "breaking ground," on the
+Chesapeake and Ohio canal, then about to be commenced, which took place on
+the 4th of July, 1828. On the morning of that day, the President, the
+Heads of Departments, the Foreign Ministers, the Corporations of
+Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, the President and Directors of the
+Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, with a large concourse of citizens,
+embarked on board of steamboats and ascended the Potomac, to the place
+selected for the ceremony. On reaching the ground, a procession was
+formed, which moved around it so as to leave a hollow space, in the midst
+of a mass of people, in the centre of which was the spot marked out by
+Judge Wright, the Engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, for
+the commencement of the work. A moment's pause here occurred, while the
+spade, destined to commence the work, was selected by the committee of
+arrangements, and the spot for breaking ground was precisely denoted.
+
+At that moment the sun shone out from behind a cloud, giving an appearance
+of the highest animation to the scene. Amidst an intense silence, the
+Mayor of Georgetown handed to Gen. Mercer, the President of the Canal
+Company, the consecrated instrument; which, having received, he stepped
+forward from the resting column, and addressed as follows the listening
+multitude:--
+
+"Fellow-citizens: There are moments in the progress of time which are the
+counters of whole ages. There are events, the monuments of which,
+surviving every other memorial of human existence, eternize the nation to
+whose history they belong, after all other vestiges of its glory have
+disappeared from the globe. At such a moment have we now arrived. Such a
+monument we are now to found."
+
+Turning towards the President of the United States, who stood near him,
+Mr. M. proceeded:--
+
+"Mr. President: On a day hallowed by the fondest recollections, beneath
+this cheering (may we not humbly trust auspicious) sky, surrounded by the
+many thousand spectators who look on us with joyous anticipation; in the
+presence of the representatives of the most polished nations of the old
+and new worlds; on a spot where little more than a century ago the painted
+savage held his nightly orgies; at the request of the three cities of the
+District of Columbia, I present to the Chief Magistrate of the most
+powerful Republic on earth, for the most noble purpose that was ever
+conceived by man, this humble instrument of rural labor, a symbol of the
+favorite occupation of our countrymen. May the use to which it is about to
+be devoted prove the precursor, to our beloved country, of improved
+agriculture, of multiplied and diversified arts, of extended commerce and
+navigation. Combining its social and moral influence with the principles
+of that happy constitution under which you have been called to preside
+over the American people, may it become a safeguard of their liberty and
+independence, and a bond of perpetual union!
+
+"To the ardent wishes of this vast assembly I unite my fervent prayer to
+that infinite and awful Being without whose favor all human power is but
+vanity, that he will crown your labor with his blessing, and our work with
+immortality."
+
+As soon as he had ended, the President of the United States, to whom Gen.
+Mercer had presented the spade, stepped forward, and, with an animation of
+manner and countenance which showed that his whole heart was in the thing,
+thus addressed the assembly of his fellow-citizens:--
+
+"Friends and Fellow-citizens: It is nearly a full century since Berkely,
+bishop of Cloyne, turning towards this fair land which we now inhabit,
+the eyes of a prophet, closed a few lines of poetical inspiration with
+this memorable prediction--
+
+    "Time's noblest empire is the last :"--
+
+a prediction which, to those of us whose lot has been cast by Divine
+Providence in these regions, contains not only a precious promise, but a
+solemn injunction of duty, since upon our energies, and upon those of our
+posterity, its fulfilment will depend. For with reference to what
+principle could it be that Berkely proclaimed this, the last, to be the
+noblest empire of time? It was, as he himself declares, on the
+transplantation of learning and the arts to America. Of learning and the
+arts. The four first acts--the empires of the old world, and of former
+ages--the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, the Roman empires--were
+empires of conquest, dominions of man over man. The empire which his great
+mind, piercing into the darkness of futurity, foretold in America, was the
+empire of learning and the arts,--the dominion of man over himself, and
+over physical nature--acquired by the inspirations of genius, and the
+toils of industry; not watered with the tears of the widow and the orphan;
+not cemented in the blood of human victims; founded not in discord, but in
+harmony,--of which the only spoils are the imperfections of nature, and
+the victory achieved is the improvement of the condition of all. Well may
+this be termed nobler than the empire of conquest, in which man subdues
+only his fellow-man.
+
+"To the accomplishment of this prophecy, the first necessary step was the
+acquisition of the right of self-government, by the people of the British
+North American Colonies, achieved by the Declaration of Independence, and
+its acknowledgment by the British nation. The second was the union of all
+these colonies under one general confederated Government--a task more
+arduous than that of the preceding separation, but at last effected by the
+present constitution of the United States.
+
+"The third step, more arduous still than either or both the others, was
+that which we, fellow-citizens, may now congratulate ourselves, our
+country, and the world of man, that it is taken. It is the adaptation of
+the powers, physical, moral, and intellectual, of this whole Union, to the
+improvement of its own condition: of its moral and political condition, by
+wise and liberal institutions--by the cultivation of the understanding and
+the heart--by academies, schools, and learned institutes--by the pursuit
+and patronage of learning and the arts; of its physical condition, by
+associated labor to improve the bounties, and to supply the deficiencies
+of nature; to stem the torrent in its course; to level the mountain with
+the plain; to disarm and fetter the raging surge of the ocean.
+Undertakings of which the language I now hold is no exaggerated
+description, have become happily familiar not only to the conceptions, but
+to the enterprize of our countrymen. That for the commencement of which
+we are here assembled is eminent among the number. The project
+contemplates a conquest over physical nature, such as has never yet been
+achieved by man. The wonders of the ancient world, the pyramids of Egypt,
+the Colossus of Rhodes, the temple at Ephesus, the mausoleum of
+Artemisia, the wall of China, sink into insignificance before
+it:--insignificance in the mass and momentum of human labor required for
+the execution--insignificance in comparison of the purposes to be
+accomplished by the work when executed. It is, therefore, a pleasing
+contemplation to those sanguine and patriotic spirits who have so long
+looked with hope to the completion of this undertaking, that it unites the
+moral power and resources--first, of numerous individuals--secondly, of
+the corporate cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria--thirdly,
+of the great and powerful States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and
+Maryland--and lastly, by the subscription authorized at the recent session
+of Congress, of the whole Union.
+
+"Friends and Fellow-laborers. We are informed by the holy oracles of
+truth, that, at the creation of man, male and female, the Lord of the
+universe, their Maker, blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and
+multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. To subdue the earth was,
+therefore, one of the first duties assigned to man at his creation; and
+now, in his fallen condition, it remains among the most excellent of his
+occupations. To subdue the earth is pre-eminently the purpose of the
+undertaking, to the accomplishment of which the first stroke of the spade
+is now to be struck. That it is to be struck by this hand, I invite you to
+witness.--[Here the stroke of the spade.] [Footnote: Attending this action
+was an incident which produced a greater sensation than, any other that
+occurred during the day. The spade which the President held, struck a
+root, which prevented its penetrating the, earth. Not deterred by trifling
+obstacles from doing what he had deliberately resolved to perform, Mr.
+Adams tried it again, with no better success. Thus foiled, he threw down
+the spade, hastily stripped off and laid aside his coat, and went
+seriously to work. The multitude around, and on the hills and trees, who
+could not hear, because of their distance from the open space, but could
+see and understand, observing this action, raised a loud and unanimous
+cheering, which continued for some time after Mr. Adams had mastered the
+difficulty.] And in performing this act, I call upon you to join me in
+fervent supplication to Him from whom that primitive injunction came, that
+he would follow with his blessing, this joint effort of our great
+community, to perform his will in the subjugation of the earth for the
+improvement of the condition of man--that he would make it one of his
+chosen instruments for the preservation, prosperity, and perpetuity of our
+Union--that he would have in his holy keeping all the workmen by whose
+labors it is to be completed--that their lives and their health may be
+precious in his sight; and that they may live to see the work of their
+hands contribute to the comforts and enjoyments of millions of their
+countrymen.
+
+"Friends and brethren: Permit me further to say, that I deem the duty, now
+performed at the request of the President and Directors of the Chesapeake
+and Ohio Canal Company, and the Corporations of the District of Columbia,
+one of the most fortunate incidents of my life. Though not among the
+functions of my official station, I esteem it as a privilege conferred
+upon me by my fellow-citizens of the District. Called, in the performance
+of my service, heretofore as one of the representatives of my native
+commonwealth in the Senate, and now as a member of the executive
+department of the Government, my abode has been among the inhabitants of
+the District longer than at any other spot upon earth. In availing myself
+of this occasion to return to them my thanks for the numberless acts of
+kindness that I have experienced at their hands, may I be allowed to
+assign it as a motive, operating upon the heart, and superadded to my
+official obligations, for taking a deeper interest in their welfare and
+prosperity. Among the prospects of futurity which we may indulge the
+rational hope of seeing realized by this junction of distant waters, that
+of the auspicious influence which it will exercise over the fortunes of
+every portion of this District is one upon which my mind dwells with
+unqualified pleasure. It is my earnest prayer that they may not be
+disappointed.
+
+"It was observed that the first step towards the accomplishment of the
+glorious destinies of our country was the Declaration of Independence.
+That the second was the union of these States under our federative
+Government. The third is irrevocably fixed by the act upon the
+commencement of which we are now engaged. What time more suitable for this
+operation could have been selected than the anniversary of our great
+national festival? What place more appropriate from whence to proceed,
+than that which bears the name of the citizen warrior who led our armies
+in that eventful contest to the field, and who first presided as the Chief
+Magistrate of our Union? You know that of this very undertaking he was one
+of the first projectors; and if in the world of spirits the affections of
+our mortal existence still retain their sway, may we not, without
+presumption, imagine that he looks down with complacency and delight upon
+the scene before and around us?
+
+"But while indulging in a sentiment of joyous exultation at the benefits
+to be derived from this labor of our friends and neighbors, let us not
+forget that the spirit of internal improvement is catholic and liberal. We
+hope and believe that its practical advantages will be extended to every
+individual in our Union. In praying for the blessing of heaven upon our
+task, we ask it with equal zeal and sincerity upon every other similar
+work in this confederacy; and particularly upon that which, on this same
+day, and perhaps at this very hour, is commencing from a neighboring city.
+It is one of the happiest characteristics in the principle of internal
+improvement, that the success of one great enterprise, instead of
+counteracting, gives assistance to the execution of another. May they
+increase and multiply, till, in the sublime language of inspiration, every
+valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low; the
+crooked straight, the rough places plain. Thus shall the prediction of the
+bishop of Cloyne be converted from prophecy into history; and, in the
+virtues and fortunes of our posterity, the last shall prove the noblest
+empire of time."
+
+The administration of Mr. Adams, from the first day of its existence, met
+with an opposition more determined, bitter, and unscrupulous than any
+which has ever assailed a President of the United States. It evidently was
+not an opposition based on well-grounded objections to his principles or
+his measures Before an opportunity had been given fairly and fully to
+develop his policy as President, the opposition had taken its stand, and
+boldly declared that his administration should be overthrown at every
+hazard, whatever might be its policy, its integrity, or its success. A
+favorite candidate, having certain elements of immense popularity with a
+large class of people, and supported with enthusiasm by his immediate
+friends, had been defeated in the previous presidential canvass, at a
+moment when it was thought triumphant success had been secured. Under the
+exasperation and excitement of this overthrow, it was determined that his
+more fortunate rival should be displaced at the earliest moment, at
+whatever cost, though his administration should prove unrivalled in
+patriotism, and the successful promotion of the general welfare.
+
+The opposition did not fail to seize upon certain points, which, in the
+exercise of a due degree of adroitness, yielded an ample material for
+popular declamation and censure. The fact that Mr. Adams had a less number
+of electoral votes than Gen. Jackson was greatly dwelt upon as positive
+evidence that the will of the people had been violated in the election of
+the former to the presidency--although it has since been satisfactorily
+ascertained that Mr. Adams had a larger number of the primary votes of the
+people than his prominent opponent.
+
+The charge of "bargain and corruption," alleged against Mr. Adams and Mr.
+Clay, was also used as an effective weapon against the former, in the
+suceeeding presidential canvass.  Notwithstanding the charge had been
+promptly and emphatically denied by the parties implicated, and proof in
+its support fearlessly challenged--notwithstanding every attempt at
+evidence to fix it upon them had most signally failed, and involved those
+engaged therein in utter confusion of face--yet so often and so boldly was
+the charge repeated by designing men, so generally and continually was it
+reiterated by a venal press from one end of the Union to the other, that a
+majority of the people was driven into its belief, and the fate of Mr.
+Adams's administration was sealed against him. Subsequent developments
+have shown, that, in the annals of political warfare, there never was a
+charge uttered against eminent public men, so thoroughly destitute of the
+shadow of truth as this. But it answered the immediate ends of its
+authors. Posterity will do ample justice to all the parties in this
+transaction.
+
+Another event which operated seriously to the disadvantage of Mr. Adams,
+was the amalgamation of the strong Crawford party with the supporters of
+Gen. Jackson. This combination threw obstacles in the way of the
+administration which were insurmountable. It enabled the opposition to
+send a majority of members to the twentieth Congress, both in the Senate
+and the House of Representatives. The test of the strength of parties in
+the House took place on the election of Speaker. Andrew Stevenson, of
+Virginia, was elected on the first ballot, by a majority of ten votes over
+John W. Taylor, the administration candidate. Mr. Stevenson was a
+supporter of Mr. Crawford in 1824. His election to the Speaker's chair
+clearly indicated the union of the different sections of the opposition,
+and foreshadowed too evidently the overthrow of the administration of Mr.
+Adams.
+
+In this state of things, with a majority of Congress against him, the
+President was deprived of the opportunity of carrying into execution many
+important measures which were highly calculated to promote the permanent
+benefit of the country, and which could not have failed to receive the
+approbation of the people. A majority of all the committees of both Houses
+were against him; and for the first time an administration was found
+without adequate strength in Congress to support its measures. In several
+instances the reports of committees partook of a strong partisan
+character, in violation of all rules of propriety and correct legislation.
+
+The first session of the twentieth Congress, which was held immediately
+preceding the presidential campaign of 1828, was characterized by
+proceedings, which, at this day, all will unite in deciding as highly
+reprehensible. Instead of attending strictly to the legitimate business of
+the session, much of the time was spent in discussions involving the
+merits of the opposing candidates for the presidency, and designed to have
+an express bearing on the election then near at hand. Of this character
+was a resolution introduced into the House of Representatives, on the 8th
+of January, 1828, by Mr. Hamilton, a supporter of Gen. Jackson, to inquire
+into the expediency of having a historical picture of the battle of New
+Orleans painted, and placed in the rotunda of the Capitol. This was
+followed by a resolution, introduced by Mr. Sloane, an administration
+member, requiring the Secretary of War to furnish the House with a copy of
+the proceedings of a court-martial ordered by Gen. Jackson, in 1814, for
+the trial of certain Tennessee militiamen, who were condemned and shot.
+
+At this session of Congress may be dated the introduction of a practice
+which has become an evil of the greatest magnitude in the present day.
+Reference is had to the custom of making the halls of Congress a mere
+arena, where, instead of attending to the legitimate business of
+legislating for the benefit of the country at large, political gladiators
+spend much of their time in wordy contests, designed solely for the
+promotion of personal or party purposes, to the neglect of the interests
+of their constituents. From this has grown the habit of speech-making by
+the hour, on topics trivial in their nature, in which the people have not
+the slightest interest, and which quite often, are totally foreign to the
+subject ostensibly in debate. Valuable time and immense treasures are thus
+squandered to no profitable purpose. Should not this evil be abated?
+
+The stern integrity of Mr. Adams, and his unyielding devotion to
+principle, were made to operate against him. Had he chosen to turn the
+vast influence at his command to the promotion of personal ends--had he
+unscrupulously ejected from office all political opposers, and supplied
+their places with others who would have labored, with all the means at
+their disposal, in his behalf--little doubt can be entertained that he
+could have secured his re-election. But he utterly refused to resort to
+such measures. Believing he was promoted to his high position not for his
+individual benefit, but to advance the welfare of the entire country, his
+view of duty was too elevated and pure to allow him to desecrate the trust
+reposed in him to personal ends. Hence the influence derived from the
+patronage of the General Government was turned against the administration
+rather than in its behalf; and the singular spectacle was presented of men
+exerting every nerve to overthrow Mr. Adams, who were dependent upon him
+for the influence they wielded against him, and for their very means of
+subsistence.
+
+A hotly contested political campaign ensued in the fall of 1828. In view
+of the peculiar combination of circumstances, and of the means resorted to
+by the opposing parties to secure success, the result could be foreseen
+with much certainty. Gen. Jackson was elected President of the United
+States, and was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1829.
+
+Thus closed the administration of John Quincy Adams. At the call of his
+country he entered upon the highest station in its gift. With a fidelity
+and uprightness which have not been surpassed, he discharged his important
+trust to the lasting benefit of all the vital interests which tend to
+build up a great and prosperous people. And at the call of his country he
+relinquished the honors of office, and willingly retired to the private
+walks of life.
+
+No man can doubt that Mr. Adams could look back upon his labors while
+President with the utmost satisfaction. "During his administration new and
+increased activity was imparted to those powers vested in the Federal
+Government for the development of the resources of the country, and the
+public revenue was liberally expended in prosecuting those liberal
+measures, to which the sanction of Congress had been deliberately given,
+as the settled policy of the Government.
+
+"More than one million of dollars had been expended in enlarging and
+maintaining the light-house establishment--half a million in completing
+the public buildings--two millions in erecting arsenals, barracks, and
+furnishing the national armories--nearly the same amount had been expended
+in permanent additions to the naval establishment--upwards of three
+millions had been devoted to fortifying the sea-coast--and more than four
+millions expended in improving the internal communications between
+different parts of the country, and in procuring information, by
+scientific surveys, concerning its capacity for further improvement.
+Indeed, more had been directly effected by the aid of Government in this
+respect, during Mr. Adams' administration, than during the administrations
+of all his predecessors. Other sums, exceeding a million, had been
+appropriated for objects of a lasting character, and not belonging to the
+annual expense of the Government; making in the whole nearly fourteen
+millions of dollars expended for the permanent benefit of the country,
+during this administration.
+
+"At the same time the interest on the public debt was punctually paid, and
+the debt itself was in a constant course of reduction, having been
+diminished $30,373,188 during his administration, and leaving due on the
+1st of January, 1829, $58,362,136. While these sums were devoted to
+increasing the resources and improving the condition of the country, and
+in discharging its pecuniary obligations, those claims which were derived
+from what are termed the imperfect obligations of gratitude and humanity
+were not forgotten.
+
+"More than five millions of dollars were appropriated to solace the
+declining years of the surviving officers of the Revolution; and a million
+and a half expended in extinguishing the Indian title, and defraying the
+expense of the removal beyond the Mississippi of such tribes as were
+unqualified for a residence near civilized communities, and in promoting
+the civilization of those who, relying on the faith of the United States,
+preferred to remain on the lands which were the abodes of their fathers.
+
+"In the condition which we have described--in peace with all the world,
+with an increasing revenue, and with a surplus of $5,125,638 in the public
+treasury,--the administration of the Government of the United States was
+surrendered by Mr. Adams on the 3d of March, 1829." [Footnote: American
+Annual Register.]
+
+The "Georgia Constitutionalist" thus describes Mr. Adams' retirement from
+office:--"Mr. Adams is said to be to good health and spirits. The manner
+in which this gentleman retired from office is so replete with propriety
+and dignity, that we are sure history will record it as a laudable example
+to those who shall hereafter be required by the sovereign people to
+descend from exalted stations. It was a great matter with the ancients to
+die with decency, and there are some of our own day whose deaths are more
+admirable than their lives. Mr. Adams' deportment in the Presidency was
+lofty and proud; but the smile with which he throws aside the trappings of
+power, and the graceful propriety with which he takes leave of patronage
+and place, are truly commendable."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MR. ADAMS' MULTIPLIED ATTAINMENTS--VISITED BY SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN--HIS
+REPORT ON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--HIS POETRY--ERECTS A MONUMENT TO THE
+MEMORY OF HIS PARENTS--ELECTED MEMBER OF CONGRESS--LETTER TO THE BIBLE
+SOCIETY--DELIVERS EULOGY ON DEATH OF EX-PRESIDENT MONROE.
+
+Few public men in any country have possessed attainments more varied than
+were those of Mr. Adams. Every department of literature and science
+received more or less of his attention--every path of human improvement
+seems to have been explored by him. As a statesman, he was unrivalled in
+the profundity of his knowledge. His state papers--given to the world
+while Minister, Secretary of State, President, and Member of Congress--his
+numerous addresses, orations, and speeches, are astonishing in number, and
+in the learning they display. [Footnote: Aside from his state papers,
+official correspondence, and speeches, which would make many volumes, the
+Literary World gives the following list of the published writings of Mr.
+Adams:--
+"1. Oration at Boston, 1793; 2. Answer to Paine's Rights of Man, 1793; 3.
+Address to the Members of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society; 4.
+Letters on Silesia; 5. Letters on Silesia, 1804; 6. Inaugural Oration
+at Harvard College, 1806; 7. Letters to H. G. Otis, in reply to Timothy
+Pickering, 1808; 8. Review of the Works of Fisher Ames, 1809; 9. Lectures
+on Rhetoric and Oratory, two volumes, 1810; 10. Report on Weights and
+Measures, 1821; 11. Oration at Washington, 1821; 12. Duplicate Letters;
+the Fisheries and the Mississippi, 1822; 13. Oration to the citizens of
+Quincy, 1831; 14. Oration on the Death of James Monroe, 1831; 15. Dermot
+McMorrogh, or the Conquest of Ireland, 1832; 16. Letters to Edward
+Livingston, on Free Masonry, 1833; 17. Letters to William L. Stone, on the
+entered apprentice's oath, 1833; 18. Oration on the Life and Character of
+Lafayette, l835; 19. Oration on the Life and Character of James Madison,
+1836; 20. The Characters of Shakspeare, 1837; 21. Oration delivered at
+Newburyport, 1837; 22. Letters to his Constituents of the Twelfth
+Congressional District of Massachusetts, 1837; 23. The Jubilee of the
+Constitution, 1839; 24. A Discourse on Education, delivered at Braintree,
+1840; 25. An Address at the Observatory, Cincinnati, 1843.
+Among the unpublished works of Mr. Adams, besides his Diary, which extends
+over half a century, and would probably make some two dozen stout octavos,
+are Memoirs of the earlier Public and Private Life of John Adams, second
+President of the United States, in three volumes; Reports and Speeches on
+Public Affairs; Poems including two new cantos of Dermot McMorrogh, a
+Translation of Oberon and numerous Essays and Discourses."]
+
+No man was more familiar with modern history, with diplomacy and
+international law, and the politics of America and Europe for the last two
+or three centuries.
+
+In other departments he appeared equally at home. His acquaintance was
+familiar with the classics, and several modern languages. In oratory,
+rhetoric, and the various departments of belles lettres, his attainments
+were of more than an ordinary character. His commentaries on Desdemona,
+and others of Shakspeare's characters, show that he was no mean critic,
+in the highest walks of literature, and in all that pertains to human
+character.
+
+The following interesting account of an interview with ex-President Adams,
+by a southern gentleman, in 1834, affords some just conceptions of the
+versatility of his genius, and the profoundness of his erudition:--
+
+"Yesterday, accompanied by my friend T., I paid a visit to the venerable
+ex-President, at his residence in Quincy. A violent rain setting in as
+soon as we arrived, gave us from five to nine o'clock to listen to the
+learning of this man of books. His residence is a plain, very plain one:
+the room into which we were ushered, (the drawing-room, I suppose,) was
+furnished in true republican style. It is probably of ancient
+construction, as I perceived two beams projecting from the low ceiling, in
+the manner of the beams in a ship's cabin. Prints commemorative of
+political events, and the old family portraits, hung about the room;
+common straw matting covered the floor, and two candlesticks, bearing
+sperm candles, ornamented the mantle-piece. The personal appearance of the
+ex-President himself corresponds with the simplicity of his furniture. He
+resembles rather a substantial, well-fed farmer, than one who has wielded
+the destinies of this mighty Confederation, and been bred in the ceremony
+and etiquette of an European Court. In fact, he appears to possess none
+of that sternness of character which you would suppose to belong to one a
+large part of whose life has been spent in political warfare, or, at any
+rate, amidst scenes requiring a vast deal of nerve and inflexibility.
+
+"Mrs. Adams is described in a word--a lady. She has all the warmth of
+heart and ease of manner that mark the character of the southern ladies,
+and from which it would be no easy matter to distinguish her.
+
+"The ex-President was the chief talker. He spoke with infinite ease,
+drawing upon his vast resources with the certainty of one who has his
+lecture before him ready written. The whole of his conversation, which
+steadily he maintained for nearly four hours, was a continued stream of
+light. Well contented was I to be a listener. His subjects were the
+architecture of the middle ages; the stained glass of that period;
+sculpture, embracing monuments particularly. On this subject his opinion
+of Mrs. Nightingale's monument in Westminster Abbey, differs from all
+others that I have seen or heard. He places it above every other in the
+Abbey, and observed in relation to it, that the spectator 'saw nothing
+else.' Milton, Shakspeare, Shenstone, Pope, Byron, and Southey were in
+turn remarked upon. He gave Pope a wonderfully high character, and
+remarked that one of his chief beauties was the skill exhibited in varying
+the cesural pause--quoting from various parts of his author to illustrate
+his remarks more fully. He said very little on the politics of the
+country. He spoke at considerable length of Sheridan and Burke, both of
+whom he had heard, and could describe with the most graphic effect. He
+also spoke of Junius; and it is remarkable that he should place him so
+far above the best of his contemporaries. He spoke of him as a bad man;
+but maintained, as a writer, that he had never been equalled.
+
+"The conversation never flagged for a moment; and on the whole, I shall
+remember my visit to Quincy, as amongst the most instructive and pleasant
+I ever passed."
+
+As a theologian, Mr. Adams was familiar with the tenets of the various
+denominations which compose the great Christian family, and acquainted
+with the principal arguments by which they support their peculiar views.
+While entertaining decided opinions of his own, which he did not hesitate
+to avow on all proper occasions, he was tolerant of the sentiments of all
+who differed from him. He deemed it one of the most sacred rights of every
+American citizen, and of every human being, to worship God according to
+the dictates of his own conscience, without let or hindrance, our laws
+equally tolerating, and equally protecting every sect.
+
+In the most abstruse sciences he was equally at home. His report to
+Congress, while Secretary of State, on Weights and Measures was very
+elaborate, and evinced a deep and careful research into this important but
+most difficult subject. That report was of the utmost value. Adopting the
+philosophical and unchangeable basis of the modern French system of
+mensuration, an arc of the meridian, it laid the foundation for the
+accurate manipulations and scientific calculations of the late Professor
+Hassler, which have furnished an unerring standard of Weights and
+Measures to the people of this country. In a very learned notice of
+"Measures, Weights, and Money," by Col. Pasley, Royal Engineer, F. R. S.,
+published in London, in 1834, he pays the following well-merited
+compliment to Mr. Adams:--
+
+"I cannot pass over the labors of former writers, without acknowledging in
+particular, the benefit which I have derived, whilst investigating the
+historical part of my subject, from a book printed at Washington, in 1821,
+as an official Report on Weights and Measures, made by a distinguished
+American statesman, Mr. John Quincy Adams, to the Senate of the United
+States, of which he was afterwards President. This author has thrown more
+light into the history of our old English weights and measures, than all
+former writers on the same subject. His views of historical facts, even
+where occasionally in opposition to the reports of our own Parliamentary
+Committees, appear to me to be the most correct. For my own part, I
+confess that I do not think I could have seen my way into the history of
+English weights and measures, in the feudal ages, without his guidance."
+
+To his other accomplishments Mr. Adams added that of a poet. His
+pretensions in this department were humble, yet many of his productions,
+thrown off hastily, no doubt, during brief respites from severer labors,
+possess no little merit. A few specimens will not be uninteresting to the
+reader.
+
+  LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.   237
+
+The following stanzas are from a hymn by Mr. Adams for the celebration of
+the 4th of July, 1831, at Quincy, Mass.:--
+
+  "Sing to the Lord a song of praise;
+     Assemble, ye who love his name;
+   Let congregated millions raise
+     Triumphant glory's loud acclaim.
+   From earth's remotest regions come;
+     Come, greet your Maker, and your King;
+   With harp, with timbrel, and with drum,
+     His praise let hill and valley sing.
+
+  *   *   *   *   *
+
+  "Go forth in arms; Jehovah reigns;
+     Their graves let foul oppressors find;
+   Bind all their sceptred kings in chains;
+     Their peers with iron fetters bind.
+   Then to the Lord shall praise ascend;
+     Then all mankind, with one accord,
+   And freedom's voice, till time shall end,
+     In pealing anthems, praise the Lord."
+
+The lines which follow were inscribed to the sundial under the window of
+the hall of the House of Representatives, at Washington:--
+
+  "Thou silent herald of Time's silent flight!
+     Say, couldst thou speak, what warning voice were thine?
+     Shade, who canst only show how others shine!
+   Dark, sullen witness of resplendent light
+   In day's broad glare, and when the noontide bright
+     Of laughing fortune sheds the ray divine,
+     Thy ready favors cheer us--but decline
+   The clouds of morning and the gloom of night.
+   Yet are thy counsels faithful, just and wise;
+     They bid seize the moments as they pass--
+
+   Snatch the retrieveless sunbeam as it flies,
+     Nor lose one sand of life's revolving glass--
+   Aspiring still, with energy sublime,
+     By virtuous deeds to give eternity to Time."
+
+It is seldom that lines more pure and beautiful can be found, than the
+following on the death of children:--
+
+  "Sure, to the mansions of the blest
+     When infant innocence ascends,
+   Some angel brighter than the rest
+     The spotless spirit's flight attends.
+
+  "On wings of ecstacy they rise,
+    Beyond where worlds material roll,
+   Till some fair sister of the skies
+     Receives the unpolluted soul.
+
+  "There at the Almighty Father's hand,
+     Nearest the throne of living light,
+   The choirs of infant seraphs stand,
+     And dazzling shine, where all are bright.
+
+  "The inextinguishable beam,
+     With dust united at our birth,
+   Sheds a more dim, discolored gleam,
+     The more it lingers upon earth:
+
+  "Closed is the dark abode of clay,
+     The stream of glory faintly burns,
+   Nor unobscured the lucid ray
+     To its own native fount returns:
+
+  "But when the Lord of mortal breath
+     Decrees his bounty to resume,
+   And points the silent shaft of death,
+     Which speeds an infant to the tomb,
+
+  "No passion fierce, no low desire,
+     Has quenched the radiance of the flame;
+   Back to its God the living fire
+     Returns, unsullied, as it came."
+
+The heart which could turn aside from the stern conflicts of the political
+world, and utter sentiments so chaste and tender, must have been the
+residence of the   sweetest and noblest emotions of man.
+
+Having taken final leave, as he believed, of the duties of public life,
+and retired to the beloved shades of Quincy, it was the desire and
+intention of Mr. Adams to devote the remainder of his days to the peaceful
+pursuits of literature. It had long been his purpose, whenever opportunity
+should offer, to write a history of the life and times of his venerated
+father, "the elder Adams." His heart was fixed on this design, and some
+introductory labors had been commenced. But an overruling Providence had a
+widely different work in preparation for him.
+
+If Mr. Adams had been permitted to follow the bent of his own feelings at
+that time--if he had continued in the retirement he had so anxiously
+sought as a rest from the toils of half a century--the brightest page of
+his wonderful history would have remained forever unwritten. He would have
+been remembered as a discreet and trusty diplomatist, an able statesman, a
+successful politician, a capable President, and an honest and honorable
+man! This would, indeed, have been a measure of renown with which most men
+would have been content, and which few of the most fortunate sons of earth
+can ever attain. He was abundantly satisfied with it. He asked for nothing
+more--he expected nothing more this side the grave. But it was not enough!
+Fame was wreathing brighter garlands, a more worthy chaplet, for his brow.
+A higher, nobler task was before him, than any enterprize which had
+claimed his attention. His long and distinguished career--his varied and
+invaluable experience--had been but a preparation to enable him to enter
+upon the real work of life for which he was raised up.
+
+The world did not yet know John Quincy Adams. Long as he had been before
+the public, the mass had thus far failed to read him aright. Hitherto
+circumstances had placed him in collision with aspiring men. He stood in
+their way to station and power. There was a motive to conceal his virtues
+and magnify his faults. He had never received from his opposers the
+smallest share of credit really due to him for patriotism, self-devotion,
+and purity of purpose. Even his most devoted friends did not fully
+appreciate these qualities in him. During his long public service, he had
+ever been an object of hatred and vituperation to a class of minds utterly
+incapable of estimating his talents or comprehending his high principles
+of action. In the heat of political struggles, no abuse, no defamation,
+were too great to heap upon him. Misrepresentation, duplicity, malignity,
+did their worst. Did he utter a patriotic sentiment, it was charged to
+hypocrisy and political cunning. Did he do a noble deed, worthy to be
+recorded in letters of gold--sacrificing party predilections and
+friendship to support the interest of his country, and uphold the
+reputation and dignity of its Government--it was attributed to a wretched
+pandering for the emoluments of office. Did he endeavor to exercise the
+powers entrusted to him as President in such a manner as to preserve peace
+at home and abroad, develop the internal resources of the nation, improve
+facilities for transportation and travel, protect and encourage the
+industry of the country, and in every department promote the permanent
+prosperity and welfare of the people--it was allowed to be nothing more
+than the arts of an intriguer, seeking a re-election to the Presidency.
+Yea, it was declared in advance, that, "if his administration should be as
+pure as the angels in heaven," it should be overthrown. Did he exhibit the
+plain simplicity of a true republican in his dress and manners, and
+economy in all his expenditures, it was attributed to parsimony and
+meanness! A majority of his countrymen had been deceived as to his
+principles and character, and sacrificed him politically on the altar of
+prejudice and party spirit.
+
+Throughout his life he had ever been a lover of man and of human
+freedom--the best friend of his country--the most faithful among the
+defenders of its institutions--a sincere republican, and a true man.  But
+blinded by political prejudice, a large portion of his fellow-citizens
+refused the boon of credit for these qualities. It remained for another
+stage of his life, another field of display, to correct them of this
+error, and to vindicate his character. It was requisite that he should
+step down from his high position, disrobe himself of office, power and
+patronage, place himself beyond the reach of the remotest suspicion of a
+desire for political preferment and emolument, to satisfy the world that
+John Quincy Adams had from the beginning, been a pure-hearted patriot, and
+one of the noblest sons of the American Confederacy. His new career was to
+furnish a luminous commentary on his past life, and to convince the most
+sceptical, of the justice of his claim to rank among the highest and best
+of American patriots. Placed beyond the reach of any gift of office from
+the nation, with nothing to hope for, and nothing to fear in this respect,
+he was to write his name in imperishable characters, so high on the
+tablets of his country's history and fame, as to be beyond the utmost
+reach of malignity or suspicion! The door which led to this closing act of
+his dramatic life, was soon opened.
+
+On returning to Quincy, one of the first things which received the
+attention of Mr. Adams, was the discharge of a filial duty towards his
+deceased parents, in the erection of a monument to their memory. The elder
+Adams in his will, among other liberal bequests, had left a large legacy
+to aid in the erection of a new Unitarian church in Quincy. The edifice
+was completed, and ex-President J. Q. Adams caused the monument to his
+father and mother to be erected within the walls. It was a plain and
+simple design, consisting of a tablet, having recessed pilasters at the
+sides, with a base moulding and cornice; the whole supported by trusses
+at the base. The material of which it was made was Italian marble; and the
+whole was surmounted by a fine bust of John Adams, from the chisel of
+Greenough, the American artist, then at Rome. The inscription, one of the
+most feeling, appropriate, and classical specimens extant, was as
+follows:--
+
+                 "LIBERTATEM AMICITTAM FIDEM RETINEBIS.
+ D. O. M.[Footnote: Deo, Optimo, Maximo--to God, the Best and Greatest.]
+                           Beneath these Walls
+                   Are deposited the Mortal Remains of
+                               JOHN ADAMS,
+               Son of John and Susanna (Boyalston) Adams,
+                  Second President of the United States.
+                        Born 19-30 October, 1735.
+                       On the fourth of July, 1776,
+              He pledged his Life, Fortune, and Sacred Honor
+                   To the INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY.
+                     On the third of September, 1783,
+     Be affixed his Seal to the definitive Treaty with Great Britain
+                  Which acknowledged that Independence,
+              And consummated the redemption of his pledge.
+                       On the fourth of July, 1826,
+                             He was summoned
+                    To the Independence of Immortality
+                     And to the JUDGEMENT OF HIS GOD
+                This House will bear witness to his Piety.
+             This Town, his Birth-place, to his Munificence:
+                        History to his Patriotism;
+             Posterity to the Depth and Compass of his Mind.
+                               At his side
+                    Sleeps till the Trump shall sound,
+                                 ABIGAIL,
+                        His beloved and only Wife,
+            Daughter of William and Elizabeth (Quincy) Smith.
+                   In every relation of Life, a pattern
+            Of Filial, Conjugal, Maternal, and Social Virtue.
+                        Born 11-22 November, 1744.
+                        Deceased 28 October, 1818,
+                                 Aged 74.
+                                ----------
+                        Married 25 October, 1764.
+               During a union of more than half a century,
+     They survived, in Harmony of Sentiment, Principle and Affection,
+                     The Tempests of Civil Commotion;
+                    Meeting undaunted, and surmounting
+                The Terrors and Trials of that Revolution
+               Which secured the Freedom of their Country;
+                  Improved the Condition of their Times;
+                 And brightened the Prospects of Futurity
+                      To the Race of Man upon Earth.
+                               -----------
+                                 PILGRIM:
+        From lives thus spent thy earthly Duties learn;
+        From Fancy's Dreams to active Virtue turn:
+        Let Freedom, Friendship, Faith thy Soul engage,
+        And serve, like them, thy Country and thy Age."
+
+
+
+Mr. Adams had remained in the retirement of Quincy but little more than a
+single year, when the following paragraph appeared in the public prints
+throughout the country:--
+
+"Mr. Adams, late President of the United States, is named as a candidate
+for Congress, from the district of Massachusetts now represented by Mr.
+Richardson, who declines a re-election."
+
+It would be difficult to describe the surprise created by this
+announcement, in every quarter of the Union. Speculation was at fault.
+Would he accept or reject such a nomination? By a large class it was
+deemed impossible that one who had occupied positions so elevated--who had
+received the highest honors the nation could bestow upon him--would
+consent to serve the people of a single district, in a capacity so humble,
+comparatively, as a Representative in Congress. Such a thing was totally
+unheard of. The people, however, of the Plymouth congressional district in
+which he resided, met and duly nominated him for the proposed office. All
+doubts as to his acceptance of the nomination were speedily dispelled by
+the appearance of a letter from Mr. Adams, in the Columbian Sentinel,
+Oct., 15, 1830, in which he says:--
+
+"If my fellow-citizens of the district should think proper to call for
+such services as it may be in my power to render them, by representing
+them in the twenty-second Congress, I am not aware of any bound principle
+which would justify me in withholding them. To the manifestations of
+confidence on the part of those portions of the people who, at two several
+meetings, have seen fit to present my name for the suffrages of the
+district, I am duly and deeply sensible."
+
+In due time the election was held, and Mr. Adams was returned to Congress,
+by a vote nearly unanimous. From that time forward for seventeen years,
+and to the hour of his death, he occupied the post of Representative in
+Congress from the Plymouth district, in Massachusetts, with unswerving
+fidelity, and distinguished honor. There can be no doubt that many of the
+best friends of Mr. Adams seriously questioned the propriety of his
+appearing as a Representative in the halls of Congress. It was a step
+never before taken by an ex-President of the United States. They
+apprehended it might be derogatory to his dignity, and injurious to his
+reputation and fame, to enter into the strifes, and take part in the
+litigations and contentions which characterize the national House of
+Representatives. Moreover, they were fearful that in measuring himself, as
+he necessarily must, in the decline of life, with younger men in the prime
+of their days, who were urged by the promptings of ambition to tax every
+capacity of their nature, he might injure his well-earned reputation for
+strength of intellect, eloquence and statesmanship. But these misgivings
+were groundless. In the House of Representatives, as in all places where
+Mr. Adams was associated with others, he arose immediately to the head of
+his compeers. So far from suffering in his reputation, it was immeasurably
+advanced during his long congressional career. New powers were
+developed--new traits of character were manifested--new and repeated
+instances of devotion to principle and the rights of man were made
+known--which added a brighter lustre to his already widely-extended fame.
+He exhibited a fund of knowledge so vast and profound--a familiarity so
+perfect with nearly every topic which claimed the attention of
+Congress--he could bring forth from his well-replenished storehouse of
+memory so vast an array of facts, shedding light upon subjects deeply
+obscured to others--displayed such readiness and power in debate, pouring
+out streams of purest eloquence, or launching forth the most scathing
+denunciations when he deemed them called for--that his most bitter
+opposers, while trembling before his sarcasm, and dreading his assaults,
+could not but grant him the meed of their highest admiration. Well did he
+deserve the title conferred upon him by general consent, of "the Old Man
+Eloquent!"
+
+Had Mr. Adams followed the bent of his own inclinations--had he consulted
+simply his personal ease and comfort--he would probably never have
+appeared again in public life. Having received the highest distinctions
+his country could bestow upon him, blessed with an ample fortune, and
+possessing all the elements of domestic comfort, he would have passed the
+evening of his earthly sojourn in peaceful tranquillity, at the mansion of
+his fathers in Quincy. But it was one of the sacred rules in this
+distinguished statesman's life, to yield implicit obedience to the demands
+of duty. His immediate neighbors and fellow-citizens called him to their
+service in the national councils. He was conscious of the possession of
+talents, knowledge, experience, and all the qualifications which would
+enable him to become highly useful, not only in acting as the
+representative of his direct constituents, but in promoting the welfare of
+our common country. This conviction once becoming fixed in his mind,
+decided his course. He felt he had no choice left but to comply
+unhesitatingly with the demand which had been made upon his patriotism. In
+adopting this resolution--in consenting, after having been once at the
+head of the National Government, to assume again the labors of public life
+in a subordinate station, wholly divested of power and patronage, urged by
+no influence but the claims of duty, governed by no motive but a simple
+desire to serve his country and promote the well-being of his
+fellow-man--Mr. Adams presented a spectacle of moral sublimity unequalled
+in the annals of nations!
+
+For many years Mr. Adams was a member, and one of the Vice Presidents, of
+the American Bible Society. In reply to an invitation to attend its
+anniversary in 1830, he wrote the following letter:--
+
+"Sir:--Your letter of the 22d of March was duly received; and while
+regretting my inability to attend personally at the celebration of the
+anniversary of the institution, on the 13th of next month, I pray you,
+sir, to be assured of the gratification which I have experienced in
+learning the success which has attended the benevolent exertions of the
+American Bible Society.
+
+"In the decease of Judge Washington, they have lost an able and valuable
+associate, whose direct co-operation, not less than his laborious and
+exemplary life, contributed to promote the cause of the Redeemer. Yet not
+for him, nor for themselves by the loss of him, are they called to sorrow
+as without hope; for lives like his shine but as purer and brighter lights
+in the world, after the lamp which fed them is extinct, than before.
+
+"The distribution of Bibles, if the simplest, is not the least efficacious
+of the means of extending the blessings of the Gospel to the remotest
+corners of the earth; for the Comforter is in the sacred volume: and among
+the receivers of that million of copies distributed by the Society, who
+shall number the multitudes awakened thereby, with good will to man in
+their hearts, and with the song of the Lamb upon their lips"
+
+"The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes
+in the divine inspiration of the holy Scriptures, must hope that the
+religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the
+foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more
+encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And
+may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper, till the
+Lord shall have made 'bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;
+and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.'
+
+"With many respects to the Board of Managers, please to accept the good
+wishes of your friend and fellow-citizen,
+                                         "JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
+
+On the 4th of July, 1831, at half past three o'clock in the afternoon, the
+venerable JAMES MONROE, fifth President of the United States, departed
+life, aged 73 years. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel L.
+Gouverneur Esq., in the city of New York. His decease had been for some
+days expected; but life lingered until the anniversary of his country's
+independence, when his spirit took its departure to a better world.
+Throughout the United States, honors were paid to his memory by hoisting
+of flags at half mast, the tolling of bells, firing of minute guns, the
+passing of resolutions, and delivery of eulogies. He was, emphatically, a
+great and good man, respected and beloved by the people of all parties,
+without exception. There are few instances in the history of the world, of
+more remarkable coincidences than the death of three Presidents of the
+United States, who took most prominent parts in proclaiming and achieving
+the independence of our country, on the anniversary of the day when the
+declaration of that independence was made to the world.  The noise of the
+firing of cannon, in celebrating the day, caused the eyes of the dying
+Monroe to open inquiringly. When the occasion of these rejoicings was
+communicated to him, a look of intelligence indicated that he understood
+the character of the day.
+
+At this anniversary of our National Independence, Mr. Adams delivered an
+oration before the citizens of Quincy. It was an able and eloquent
+production. The following were the concluding paragraphs. In reference to
+nullification, which was threatened by some of the Southern States, he
+said:--
+
+"The event of a conflict in arms, between the Union and one of its
+members, whether terminating in victory or defeat, would be but an
+alternative of calamity to all. In the holy records of antiquity, we have
+two examples of a confederation ruptured by the severance of its members,
+one of which resulted, after three desperate battles, in the extermination
+of the seceding tribe. And the victorious people, instead of exulting in
+shouts of triumph, came to the house of God, and abode there till even,
+before God; and lifted up their voices, and wept sore, and said,--O Lord
+God of Israel why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be
+to-day one tribe lacking in Israel? The other was a successful example of
+resistance against tyrannical taxation, and severed forever the
+confederacy, the fragments forming separate kingdoms; and from that day
+their history presents an unbroken series of disastrous' alliances, and
+exterminating wars--of assassinations, conspiracies, revolts, and
+rebellions, until both parts of the confederacy sunk into tributary
+servitude to the nations around them; till the countrymen of David and
+Solomon hung their harps upon the willows of Babylon, and were totally
+lost amidst the multitudes of the Chaldean and Assyrian monarchies, 'the
+most despised portion of their slaves.'
+
+"In these mournful memorials of their fate, we may behold the sure, too
+sure prognostication of our own, from the hour when force shall be
+substituted for deliberation, in the settlement of our constitutional
+questions. This is the deplorable alternative--the extirpation of the
+seceding member, or the never-ceasing struggle of two rival confederacies,
+ultimately bending the neck of both under the yoke of foreign domination,
+or the despotic sovereignty of a conqueror at home. May heaven avert the
+omen! The destinies, not only of our posterity, but of the human race, are
+at stake.
+
+"Let no such melancholy forebodings intrude upon the festivities of this
+anniversary. Serene skies and balmy breezes are not congenial to the
+climate of freedom. Progressive improvement in the condition of man, is
+apparently the purpose of a superintending Providence. That purpose will
+not be disappointed. In no delusion of national vanity, but with a feeling
+of profound gratitude to the God of our fathers, let us indulge in the
+cheering hope and belief, that our country and her people have been
+selected as instruments for preparing and maturing much of the good yet in
+reserve for the welfare and happiness of the human race. Much good has
+already been effected by the solemn proclamation of our principles--much
+more by the illustration of our example. The tempest which threatens
+desolation may be destined only to purify the atmosphere. It is not in
+tranquil ease and enjoyment that the active energies of mankind are
+displayed. Toils and dangers are trials of the soul. Doomed to the first
+by his sentence at the fall, man by submission converts them into
+pleasures. The last are, since the fall, the conditions of his existence.
+To see them in advance, to guard against them by all the suggestions of
+prudence, to meet them with the composure of unyielding resistance, and to
+abide with firm resignation the final dispensation of Him who rules the
+ball--these are the dictates of philosophy--these are the precepts of
+religion--these are the principles and consolations of patriotism:--these
+remain when all is lost--and of these is composed the spirit of
+independence--the spirit embodied in that beautiful personification of the
+poet, which may each of you, my countrymen, to the last hour of his life,
+apply to himself,--
+
+  'Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
+     Lord of the lion heart, and eagle eye!
+   Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,
+     Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.'
+
+"In the course of nature, the voice which now addresses you must soon
+cease to be heard upon earth. Life and all which it inherits lose their
+value as it draws towards its close. But for most of you, my friends and
+neighbors, long and many years of futurity are yet in store. May they be
+years of freedom--years of prosperity--years of happiness, ripening for
+immortality! But, were the breath which now gives utterance to my feelings
+the last vital air I should draw, my expiring words to you and your
+children should be, Independence and Union forever!"
+
+A few weeks subsequent to the death of ex-President Monroe, Mr. Adams
+delivered an interesting and able eulogy on his life and character, before
+the public authorities of the city of Boston, in Faneuil Hall. In drawing
+to a conclusion, he used the following language:--
+
+"Our country, by the bountiful dispensations of a gracious Heaven, is, and
+for a series of years has been, blessed with profound peace. But when the
+first father of our race had exhibited before him, by the archangel sent
+to announce his doom, and to console him in his fall, the fortunes and
+misfortunes of his descendants, he saw that the deepest of their miseries
+would befall them while favored with all the blessings of peace; and in
+the bitterness of his anguish he exclaimed:--
+
+                                               'Now I see
+              Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste.'
+
+"It is the very fervor of the noonday sun, in the cloudless atmosphere, of
+a summer sky, which breeds
+
+                                'the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
+         That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.'
+
+"You have insured the gallant ship which ploughs the waves, freighted with
+your lives and your children's fortunes, from the fury of the tempest
+above, and from the treachery of the wave beneath. Beware of the danger
+against which you can alone insure your-selves--the latent defect of the
+gallant ship itself. Pass but a few short days, and forty years will have
+elapsed since the voice of him who addresses you, speaking to your fathers
+from this hallowed spot, gave for you, in the face of Heaven, the solemn
+pledge, that if, in the course of your career on earth, emergencies should
+arise, calling for the exercise of those energies and virtues which, in
+times of tranquillity and peace remain by the will of Heaven dormant in
+the human bosom, you would prove yourselves not unworthy the sires who had
+toiled, and fought, and bled, for the independence of the country. Nor has
+that pledge been unredeemed. You have maintained through times of trial
+and danger the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence
+bequeathed you by your forefathers. It remains for you only to transmit
+the same peerless legacy, unimpaired, to your children of the next
+succeeding age. To this end, let us join in humble supplication to the
+Founder of empires and the Creator of all worlds, that he would continue
+to your posterity the smiles which his favor has bestowed upon you; and,
+since 'it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,' that he would
+enlighten and lead the advancing generation in the way they should go.
+That in all the perils, and all the mischances which may threaten or
+befall our United Republic, in after times, he would raise up from among
+your sons deliverers to enlighten her councils, to defend her freedom, and
+if need be, to lead her armies to victory. And should the gloom of the
+year of independence ever again overspread the sky, or the metropolis of
+your empire be once more destined to smart under the scourge of an
+invader's hand,[Footnote: Alluding to the burning of the city of
+Washington in the war of 1812.] that there never may be found wanting
+among the children of your country, a warrior to bleed, a statesman to
+counsel, a chief to direct and govern, inspired with all the virtues, and
+endowed with all the faculties which have been so signally displayed in
+the life of JAMES MONROE."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MR. ADAMS TAKES HIS SEAT IN CONGRESS--HIS POSITION AND HABITS AS A
+MEMBER--HIS INDEPENDENCE OF PARTY--HIS EULOGY ON THE DEATH OF EX-PRESIDENT
+JAMES MADISON--HIS ADVOCACY OF THE RIGHT OF PETITION, AND OPPOSITION TO
+SLAVERY--INSURRECTION IN TEXAS--MR. ADAMS MAKES KNOWN ITS ULTERIOR OBJECT.
+
+Mr. Adams took his seat in the House of Representatives without
+ostentation, in December, 1831. His appearance there produced a profound
+sensation. It was the first time an ex-President had ever entered that
+hall in the capacity of a member. He was received with the highest marks
+of respect. It presented a singular spectacle to behold members of
+Congress who, when Mr. Adams was President, had charged him with every
+species of political corruption, and loaded his name with the most
+opprobrious epithets, now vieing with one another in bestowing upon him
+the highest marks of respect and confidence. That which they denied the
+President, they freely yielded to the MAN. It was the true homage which
+virtue and patriotism must ever receive--more honorable, and far more
+grateful to its object, than all the servility and flattery which power
+and patronage can so easily purchase.
+
+The degree of confidence reposed in Mr. Adams was manifested by his being
+placed at once at the head of the Committee on Manufactures. This is
+always a responsible station; but it was peculiarly so at that time. The
+whole Union was highly agitated on the subject of the tariff. The friends
+of domestic manufactures at the North insisted upon high protective
+duties, to sustain the mechanical and manufacturing interests of the
+country against a ruinous foreign competition. The Southern States
+resisted these measures as destructive to their interests, and
+remonstrated with the utmost vehemence against them--in which they were
+joined by a large portion of the Democratic party throughout the North.
+Mr. Adams, with enlarged views of national unity and general prosperity,
+counselled moderation to both parties. As Chairman of the Committee on
+Manufactures, he strove to produce such a compromise between the
+conflicting interests, as should yield each section a fair protection, and
+restore harmony and fraternity among the people.
+
+So important were Mr. Adams' services deemed in the Committee on
+Manufactures, that, on proposing to resign his post as Chairman, to fulfil
+other duties which claimed his attention, he was besought by all parties
+to relinquish his purpose. Mr. Cambreleng, of N. Y., a political opponent
+of Mr. Adams, said, "It was not a pleasant duty to oppose the request of
+any member of the House, particularly one of his character. He did so with
+infinite regret in the present instance; and he certainly would not take
+such a course, but for the important consequences that might result from
+assenting to the wishes of the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts.
+He had reached the conclusion, not without infinite pain and reluctance,
+that the harmony, if not the existence of our Confederacy, depends, at
+this crisis, upon the arduous, prompt, and patriotic efforts of a few
+eminent men. He believed that much might be done by the gentleman from
+Massachusetts."
+
+In the same tone of high compliment, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, said,
+"that to refuse anything that could be asked by the gentleman from
+Massachusetts gave him pain, great pain. He said it was with unaffected
+sincerity he declared, that the member from Massachusetts (with whom he
+was associated in the committee) had not only fulfilled all his duties
+with eminent ability, in the committee, but in a spirit and temper that
+commanded his grateful acknowledgments, and excited his highest
+admiration. Were it permitted him to make a personal appeal to the
+gentleman, he would have done so in advance of this motion. He would have
+appealed to him as a patriot, as a statesman, as a philanthropist, and
+above all as an American, feeling the full force of all his duties, and
+touched by all their incentives to lofty action--to forbear this request."
+
+These complimentary appeals were well deserved by Mr. Adams, and show most
+emphatically the high position he occupied in the esteem and confidence of
+the entire House of Representatives, on becoming a member thereof. But,
+with the modesty of true greatness, it was painful to him to hear these
+encomiums uttered in his own presence. He arose, and begged the House, in
+whatever further action it might take upon the subject, to refrain from
+pursuing this strain. "I have been most deeply affected," he said, "by
+what has already passed. I have felt, in the strongest manner, the
+impropriety of my being in the House while such remarks were made; being
+very conscious that sentiments of an opposite kind might have been uttered
+with far more propriety, and have probably been withheld in consequence of
+my presence."
+
+Mr. Adams carried with him into Congress all his previous habits of
+industry and close application to business. He was emphatically a hard
+worker. Few men spent more hours in the twenty-four in assiduous labor. He
+would take no active part in any matter--would engage in the discussion
+of no topic--and would not commit himself on any question--until he had
+sounded it to its nether depths, and explored all its ramifications, all
+its bearings and influences, and had thoroughly become master of the
+subject. To gain this information no toil was too great, no application
+too severe. It was in this manner that he was enabled to overwhelm with
+surprise his cotemporaries in Congress, by the profundity of his
+knowledge. No subject could be started, no question discussed, on which he
+was not perfectly at home. Without hesitation or mistake, he could pour
+forth a stream of facts, dates, names, places, accompanied with
+narrations, anecdotes, reflections and arguments, until the matter was
+thoroughly sifted and laid bare in all its parts and properties, to the
+understanding of the most casual observer. The tenacity and correctness of
+his memory was proverbial. Alas, for the man who questioned the
+correctness of his statements, his facts, or dates. Sure discomfiture
+awaited him. His mind was a perfect calendar, a store-house, a mine of
+knowledge, in relation to all past events connected with the history of
+his country and his age.
+
+In connection with his other exemplary virtues, Mr. Adams was prompt,
+faithful, unwearied, in the discharge of all his public duties. The oldest
+member of the House, he was at the same time the most punctual--the first
+at his post; the last to retire from the labors of the day. His practice
+in these respects could well put younger members to the blush. While many
+others might be negligent in their attendance, sauntering in idleness,
+engaged in frivolous amusements, or even in dissipation, he was always at
+his post. No call of the House was necessary--no Sergeant-at-arms need be
+despatched--to bring him within the Hall of Representatives. He was the
+last to move an adjournment, or to adopt any device to consume time or
+neglect the public business for personal convenience or gratification. In
+every respect he was a model legislator. His example can be most
+profitably imitated by those who would arise to eminence in the councils
+of the nation.
+
+"My seat was, for two years, by his side, and it would have scarcely more
+surprised me to miss one of the marble columns of the Hall from its
+pedestal than to see his chair empty. * * * I shall, perhaps, be pardoned
+for introducing here a slight personal recollection, which serves, in some
+degree, to illustrate his habits. The sessions of the last two days of (I
+think) the twenty-third Congress, were prolonged, the one for nineteen,
+and the other for seventeen hours. At the close of the last day's session,
+he remained in the hall of the House the last seated member of the body.
+One after another, the members had gone home; many of them for hours. The
+hall--brilliantly lighted up, and gaily attended, as was, and perhaps is
+still, the custom at the beginning the last evening of a session--had
+become cold, dark, and cheerless. Of the members who remained, to prevent
+the public business from dying for want of a quorum, most but himself were
+sinking from exhaustion, although they had probably taken their meals at
+the usual hours, in the course of the day. After the adjournment, I went
+up to Mr. Adams' seat, to join company with him, homeward; and as I knew
+he came to the House at eight o'clock in the morning, and it was then past
+midnight, I expressed a hope that he had taken some refreshment in the
+course of the day, He said he had not left his seat; but holding up a bit
+of hard bread in his fingers, gave me to understand in what way he had
+sustained nature." [Footnote: Edward Everett.]
+
+The following reminiscence will further illustrate Mr. Adams' habits of
+industry and endurance at a later day, as well as show his views in regard
+to the famous "Expunging Resolution."
+
+"On a cold and dreary morning, in the month of January, 1837, I went to
+the capitol of the United States, at a very early hour, to write out a
+very long speech I had reported for an honorable gentleman, who wished to
+look well in print; and on entering the hall of the House of
+Representatives, I found Mr. Adams, as early as the hour was, in his seat,
+busily engaged in writing. He and myself were the only persons present;
+even the industrious Mr. Follansbee, the then doorkeeper, had not made
+his appearance, with his assistants and pages, to distribute copies of the
+journal and the usual documents.
+
+"As I made it a rule never to speak to Mr. Adams, unless he spoke first, I
+said nothing; but took my seat in the reporters' gallery, and went to
+work. I had written about half an hour, when the venerable statesman
+appeared at my desk, and was pleased to say that I was a very industrious
+man. I thanked him for the compliment, and, in return, remarked, that, as
+industrious as I might be, I could not keep pace with him, 'for,' said I,
+'I found you here, sir, when I came in.'
+
+"'I believe I was a little early, sir,' he replied; 'but, as there is to
+be a closing debate to-day, in the Senate, on the expunging resolution,
+which I feel inclined to hear, I thought I would come down at an unusual
+hour, this morning, and dispatch a little writing before the Senate was
+called to order.'
+
+"'Do you think the expunging resolution will be disposed of today?' I
+inquired.
+
+"'I understand it will,' he rejoined. 'I hope so, at least,' he added,
+'for I think the country has already become weary of it, and is impatient
+for a decision. It has already absorbed more time than should have been
+devoted to it.'
+
+"'It will pass, I suppose, sir?'
+
+"'Oh, certainly; and by a very decided majority. The administration is
+too strong for the opposition; and the affair will call up a strict party
+vote. Of course Mr. Clay's resolution will be expunged, and the journal
+will not be violated.'
+
+"I was somewhat surprised at the remark, and, in return, observed that I
+had always understood that it was on the constitutional ground, that the
+expunging process could not be effected without destroying the journal,
+that the opponents of the measure had based themselves.
+
+"'It is true, sir, that that has been the grave and somewhat tenable
+argument in the Senate; but it is a fallacy, after all,' he replied. 'The
+constitution, sir, it is true, renders it imperative on both Houses to
+keep a correct journal of its proceedings; and all this can be done, and
+any portion of it may be expunged, without violating that instrument. For
+instance, sir, a resolution is adopted to-day, is entered on the journal,
+and to-morrow is expunged--and still the journal remains correct, and the
+constitution is not violated. For the act by which the expungation is
+effected is recorded on the journal; the expunged resolution becomes a
+matter of record, and thus everything stands fair and correct. The
+constitution is a sacred document, and should not be violated; but how
+often is it strictly adhered to, to the very letter? There are, sir, some
+men in the world who make great parade about their devotion to the "dear
+constitution,"--men, sir, who make its sacred character a hobby, and who,
+nevertheless, are perfectly reckless of its violation, if the ends of
+party are to be accomplished by its abjuration.'
+
+"There was a degree of sarcasm blended with his enunciation of the 'dear
+constitution,' which induced me to think it possible that he intended some
+personal allusion when he repeated the words. In this I might, and might
+not, have erred.
+
+"'In what way, Mr. Adams,' I inquired, 'is this expunging process to be
+accomplished? Is the objectionable resolution to be erased from the
+journal with a pen; or is the leaf that contains it to be cut out?'
+
+"'Neither process is to be resorted to, as I understand it,' he replied.
+'The resolution will remain in the book; black lines will be drawn around
+it, and across it from right angles, and the word "expunged," will be
+written on the face of it. It will, to all intents and purposes, still
+stand on the face of the book. There are precedents in parliamentary
+journalism for the guidance of the Senate, and I suppose they will be
+adopted.'
+
+"He then proceeded to give me a very graphic and interesting description
+of an expunging process that took place in the British Parliament in the
+reign of James the First, of England, which would repeat, if time and
+space allowed. He detained me a long time, in narrating precedents, and
+commenting on them; and then abruptly bringing the subject to a close,
+left me to pursue my labors.
+
+"Soon after the House had been called to order, immediately after the
+chaplain had said his prayers--for that was a ceremonial that Mr. Adams
+always observed--I saw him leave his seat, and proceed, as I supposed, to
+the Senate chamber. After an hour or two had elapsed, I went into the
+Senate, and there found him, standing outside of the bar, listening, with
+all imaginable attention, to Mr. Felix Grundy, who was delivering himself
+of some brief remarks he had to utter on the subject.
+
+"At nine o'clock in the evening, as I fumbled my way through the
+badly-lighted rotunda, having just escaped from a caucus that had been
+holding 'a secret session,' in the room of the committee on public lands,
+I descried a light issuing from the vestibule of the Senate chamber, which
+apprized me that 'the most dignified body on earth' was still in session.
+Impelled by a natural curiosity, I proceeded towards the council chamber
+of the right reverend signors; and, just as I reached the door, Mr. Adams
+stepped out. I inquired if the resolution had been disposed of.
+
+"'No, sir,' he replied; 'nor is it probable that it will be to-night! A
+Senator from North Carolina is yet on the floor; and, as it does not
+appear likely that he will yield it very soon, and as I am somewhat faint
+and weary, I think I shall go home.'
+
+"The night was very stormy. Snow was falling fast; the moon, which had
+
+                      '--not yet fill'd her horns,'
+
+had receded beneath the western horizon; and, as the capitol was but sadly
+lighted, I offered my services to the venerable sage of Quincy, and at the
+same time asked leave to conduct him to his dwelling.
+
+"'Sir,' said he, 'I am indebted to you for your proffered kindness; but I
+need not the service of anyone. I am somewhat advanced in life, but not
+yet, by the blessing of God, infirm; or what Doctor Johnson would call
+"superfluous;" and you may recollect what old Adam says in the play of "As
+you like it:"
+
+          "For in my youth I never did apply
+           Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood.'"
+
+"For the first time in my life, I found Mr. Adams a little inclined to be
+facetious; and I was glad of it--for it was to me a kind of assurance that
+my presence was not absolutely unwelcome.
+
+"The salutation being over, and Mr. Adams having consented that I should
+see him down the steps of the capitol, I proceeded onward, and soon found
+myself, with my revered convoy, in the vicinity of the western gate of the
+capitol grounds 'The wind whistled a dismal tale,' as we trudged onward,
+looking in vain for a cab; and the snow and sleet, which, early in the
+day, had mantled the earth, was now some twelve inches deep on
+Pennsylvania avenue. I insisted on going onward; but Mr. Adams objected,
+and bidding me good night somewhat unceremoniously, told me, almost in as
+many words, that my farther attendance was unwelcome.
+
+"As I left him, he drew his 'Boston wrapper' still closer around him,
+hitched up his mittens, and with elastic step breasted a wintry storm that
+might have repelled even the more elastic movement of juvenility, and
+wended up the avenue. Although I cannot irreverently say that he
+
+               'Whistled as he went, for want of thought,'
+
+I fancy that his mind was so deeply imbued with the contemplation of
+affairs of state, and especially in contemplating the expunging
+resolution, that he arrived at his home long before he was aware that he
+had threaded the distance between the capitol and the Presidential
+square." [Footnote: Reminiscences of the late John Quincy Adams, by an Old
+Colony Man.--New York Atlas.]
+
+Although elected to the House of Representatives as a Whig, and usually
+acting with that party, yet Mr. Adams would never acknowledge that fealty
+to party could justify a departure from the conscientious discharge of
+duty. He went with his party as far as he believed his party was right and
+its proceedings calculated to promote the welfare of the country. But no
+party claims, no smiles nor frowns, could induce him to sanction any
+measure which he believed prejudicial to the interest of the people.
+Hence, during his congressional career, the Whigs occasionally found him a
+decided opposer of their policy and measures, on questions where he
+deemed they had mistaken the true course. In this he was but true to his
+principles, character, and whole past history. It was not that he loved
+his political party or friends less, but that he loved what he viewed as
+conducive to the welfare of the nation, more.
+
+The same principle of action governed him in reference to his political
+opponents. In general he threw his influence against the administration of
+Gen. Jackson, under a sincere conviction that its policy was injurious to
+the welfare of our common country. But to every measure which he could
+sanction, he did not hesitate to yield the support of all his energies.
+
+An instance of this description occurred in relation to the treaty of
+indemnity with France. For nearly forty years, negotiations had been
+pending in vain with the French Government, to procure an indemnity for
+spoliations of American commerce, during the French Revolution and
+Republic. On the 4th of July, 1831, Mr. Rives, the American Minister to
+France, succeeded in concluding a treaty with that country, securing to
+American merchants an indemnity of five millions of dollars. But although
+the treaty was duly ratified by both Governments, the French Chamber of
+Deputies obstinately refused, for several years, to vote an appropriation
+of money to fulfil its stipulations. In 1835, Gen. Jackson determined on
+strong measures to bring the French Government to the discharge of its
+obligations. He accordingly sent a message to Congress, recommending, in
+the event of further delay on the part of France, that letters of marque
+and reprisal be issued against the commerce of France, and at the same
+time instructed Mr. Edward Livingston, our Minister at that day at the
+Court of St. Cloud, to demand his passports, and retire to London. In all
+these steps, which resulted in bringing France to a speedy fulfillment of
+the treaty, Mr. Adams yielded his unreserved support to the
+administration. He believed Gen. Jackson, in resorting to compulsory
+measures, was pursuing a course called for alike by the honor and the
+interest of the country, and he did not hesitate to give him a cordial
+support, notwithstanding he was a political opponent. In a speech made by
+Mr. Adams on the subject, in the House of Representatives, he said:--
+
+"Sir, if we do not unite with the President of the United States in an
+effort to compel the French Chamber of Deputies to carry out the
+provisions of this treaty, we shall become the scorn, the contempt, the
+derision and the reproach of all mankind! Sir, this treaty has been
+ratified on both sides of the ocean; it has received the sign manual of
+the sovereign of France, through His Imperial Majesty's principal Minister
+of State; it has been ratified by the Senate of this Republic; it has been
+sanctioned by Almighty God; and still we are told, in a voice potential,
+in the other wing of this capitol, that the arrogance of France,--nay,
+sir, not of France, but of her Chamber of Deputies--the insolence of the
+French Chambers, must be submitted to, and we must come down to the lower
+degradation of re-opening negotiations to attain that which has already
+been acknowledged to be our due! Sir, is this a specimen of your boasted
+chivalry? Is this an evidence of the existence of that heroic valor which
+has so often led our arms on to glory and immortality? Re-open
+negotiation, sir, with France? Do it, and soon you will find your flag
+insulted, dishonored, and trodden in the dust by the pigmy States of Asia
+and Africa--by the very banditti of the earth. Sir, the only
+negotiations, says the President of the United States, that he would
+encounter, should be at the cannon's mouth!"
+
+The effect produced by this speech was tremendous on all sides; and, for a
+while, the House was lost in the excitement it afforded. The venerable
+orator took his seat; and, as he sank into it, the very walls shook with
+the thundering applause he had awakened.
+
+On the 28th of June, 1836, the venerable ex-President JAMES MADISON,
+departed life at Montpelier, Va., in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He
+had filled a prominent place in the history of our Government, from its
+first organization. As a statesman, he was unsurpassed in critical acumen,
+in profundity of knowledge, in an understanding of constitutional
+Government, and its adaptation to the rights and interests of the people.
+His writings are an invaluable legacy to his countrymen, and will be
+studied and quoted for ages to come. "His public acts were a noble
+commentary upon his political principles--his private life an illustration
+of the purest virtues of the heart."
+
+When a message from the President, announcing the death of Mr. Madison,
+was received in the House of Representatives, Mr. Adams arose and said:--
+
+"By the general sense of the House, it is with perfect propriety that the
+delegation from the commonwealth of Virginia have taken the lead in the
+melancholy duty of proposing the measures suitable to be adopted as
+testimonials of the veneration due, from the Legislature of the Union, to
+the memory of the departed patriot and sage, the native of their soil, and
+the citizen of their community.
+
+"It is not without some hesitation, and some diffidence, that I have risen
+to offer in my own behalf, and in that of my colleagues upon this floor,
+and of our common constituents, to join our voice, at once of mourning and
+exultation, at the event announced to both Houses of Congress, by the
+message from the President of the United States--of mourning at the
+bereavement which has befallen our common country, by the decease of one
+of her most illustrious sons--of exultation at the spectacle afforded to
+the observation of the civilized world, and for the emulation of after
+times, by the close of a life of usefulness and of glory, after forty
+years of service in trusts of the highest dignity and splendor that a
+confiding country could bestow, succeeded by twenty years of retirement
+and private life, not inferior, in the estimation of the virtuous and the
+wise, to the honors of the highest station that ambition can ever attain.
+
+"Of the public life of James Madison what could I say that is not deeply
+impressed upon the memory and upon the heart of every one within the sound
+of my voice? Of his private life, what but must meet an echoing shout of
+applause from every voice within this hall? Is it not in a pre-eminent
+degree by emanation from his mind, that we are assembled here as the
+representatives of the people and the States of this Union? Is it not
+transcendently by his exertions that we all address each other here by the
+endearing appellation of countrymen and fellow-citizens? Of that band of
+benefactors of the human race, the founders of the Constitution of the
+United States, James Madison is the last who has gone to his reward. Their
+glorious work has survived them all. They have transmitted the precious
+bond of union to us, now entirely a succeeding generation to them. May it
+never cease to be a voice of admonition to us, of our duty to transmit the
+inheritance unimpaired to our children of the rising age.
+
+"Of the personal relations of this great man, which gave rise to the long
+career of public service in which twenty years of my own life has been
+engaged, it becomes me not to speak. The fulness of the heart must be
+silent, even to the suppression of the overflowings of gratitude and
+affection." To the year 1835, the career of Mr. Adams in Congress had been
+marked by no signal display of characteristics peculiar to himself, other
+than such as the world had long been familiar with in his previous
+history. He had succeeded in maintaining his reputation for patriotism,
+devotion to principle, political sagacity and wisdom, and his fame as a
+public debater and eloquent speaker. But no new development of qualities
+unrecognized before had been made. From that year forward, however, he
+placed himself in a new attitude before the country, and entered upon a
+career which eclipsed all his former services, and added a lustre to his
+fame which will glow in unrivalled splendor as long as human freedom is
+prized on earth. It can hardly be necessary to state that allusion is here
+made to his advocacy of the Right of Petition, and his determined
+hostility to slavery. At an age when most men would leave the stormy field
+of public life, and retire to the quiet seclusion of domestic comfort,
+these great topics inspirited Mr. Adams with a renewed vigor. With all the
+ardor and zeal of youth, he placed himself in the front rank of the battle
+which ensued, plunged into the very midst of the melee, and, with a
+dauntless courage, that won the plaudits of the world, held aloft the
+banner of freedom in the Halls of Congress, when other hearts quailed and
+fell back! He led "the forlorn hope" to the assault of the bulwarks of
+slavery, when the most sanguine believed his almost superhuman labors
+would be all in vain. In these contests a spirit blazed out from his noble
+soul which electrified the nation with admiration. In his intrepid bearing
+amid these scenes he fully personified the couplet quoted in one of his
+orations:--
+
+  "Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
+     Lord of the lion heart and eagle eye!
+   Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,
+     Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky."
+
+The first act in the career of Mr. Adams as a Member of Congress, was in
+relation to slavery. On the 12th of December, 1831, it being the second
+week of the first session of the twenty-second Congress, he presented
+fifteen petitions, all numerously signed, from sundry inhabitants of
+Pennsylvania, praying for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in
+the District of Columbia. In presenting these petitions, Mr. Adams
+remarked, that although the petitioners were not of his immediate
+constituents, yet he did not deem himself at liberty to decline presenting
+their petitions, the transmission of which to him manifested a confidence
+in him for which he was bound to be grateful. From a letter which had
+accompanied the petitions, he inferred that they came from members of the
+Society of Friends or Quakers; a body of men, he declared, than whom there
+was no more respectable and worthy class of citizens--none who more
+strictly made their lives a commentary on their professions; a body of men
+comprising, in his firm opinion, as much of human virtue, and as little of
+human infirmity, as any other equal number of men, of any denomination,
+upon the face of the globe.
+
+The petitions for the abolition of the slave trade in the District of
+Columbia, Mr. Adams considered relating to a proper subject for the
+legislation of Congress. But he did not give his countenance to those
+which prayed for the abolition of slavery in that District. Not that he
+would approbate the system of slavery; for he was, and in fact had been
+through life, its most determined foe. But he believed the time had not
+then arrived for the discussion of that subject in Congress. It was his
+settled conviction that a premature agitation of slavery in the national
+councils would greatly retard, rather than facilitate, the abolition of
+that giant evil--"as the most salutary medicines," he declared in
+illustration, "unduly administered, were the most deadly of poisons."
+
+The position taken by Mr. Adams, in presenting these petitions, was
+evidently misunderstood by many, and especially by Abolitionists. They
+construed it into a disposition on his part to sanction, or at least to
+succumb unresistingly, to the inhumanity and enormity of the slave
+institution. In this conclusion they signally erred. Mr. Adams, by birth,
+education, all the associations of his life, and the fixed principles of
+his moral and political character, was an opposer of slavery in every
+form. No man felt more keenly the wretched absurdity of professing to base
+our Government on the "self-evident truth, that all men are created equal,
+and endowed by their Creator with an unalienable right to life, liberty,
+and the pursuit of happiness"--of proclaiming our Union the abode of
+liberty, the "home of the free," the asylum of the oppressed--while
+holding in our midst millions of fellow-beings manacled in hopeless
+bondage! No man was more anxious to correct this disgraceful misnomer, and
+wipe away its dark stain from our national escutcheon at the earliest
+practicable moment. But he was a statesman of profound knowledge and
+far-reaching sagacity. He possessed the rare quality of being able to
+"bide his time" in all enterprizes. Great as he felt the enormity of
+American slavery to be, he would not, in seeking to remove it, select a
+time so unseasonable, and adopt measures so unwise, as would result,
+Samson-like, in removing the pillars of our great political fabric, and
+crushing the glorious Union, formed by the wisdom and cemented by the
+blood of our Revolutionary Fathers, into a mass of ruins.
+
+Believing there was a time to withhold and a time to strike, he would
+patiently wait until the sentiment of the American people became
+sufficiently ripened, under the increasing light and liberality of the
+age, to permit slavery to be lawfully and peaceably removed, while the
+Union should remain unweakened and untouched--the pride of our hearts,
+the admiration of the world. Hence, in his early career, he saw no
+propitious moment for such a work. While discharging the duties of U. S.
+Senator, Secretary of State, and President, an attempt in that direction
+would have resulted in an aggravation of the evils of slavery, and a
+strengthening of the institution. Nor on first entering Congress did he
+conceive the time to be fully come to engage in that agitation of the
+momentous subject, which, when once commenced in earnest, would never
+cease until either slavery would be abolished, as far as Congress
+possessed constitutional power, or the Union become rent in twain! But he
+evidently saw that time was at hand--even at the door--and he prepared
+himself for the contest.
+
+In 1835, the people of Texas took up arms in open rebellion against the
+Government of Mexico. That Province had been settled chiefly by emigrants
+from the Southern and Southwestern States. Many of them had taken their
+slaves with them. But the Mexican Government, to their enduring honor be
+it said, abolished slavery throughout that Republic. The ostensible object
+of the Texian insurrection was to resist certain schemes of usurpation
+alleged against Santa Anna, at that time President of Mexico. At the
+present day, however, after having witnessed the entire progress and
+consummation of the scheme, it is abundantly evident, that from the
+beginning there was a deliberate and well-digested plan to re-establish
+slavery in Texas--annex that province to the United States--and thus
+immensely increase the slave territory and influence in the Union.
+
+At the first blast of the Texian bugle, thousands of volunteers from the
+slaveholding States rushed to the standard of "the lone star." Agents were
+sent to the United States to create an interest in behalf of Texas--the
+most inflammatory appeals were made to the people of the Union--and armed
+bodies of American citizens were openly formed in the South, and
+transported without concealment to the seat of the insurrection. President
+Jackson reminded the inhabitants of the United States of their obligations
+to observe neutrality in the contest between Mexico and its rebellious
+province. At the same time, Gen. Gaines, with a body of U. S. troops, was
+ordered to take up a position within the borders of Texas. The avowed
+object of this movement was to protect the people of the Southwestern
+frontiers from the incursions of Indian tribes in the employment of
+Mexico. But the presence of such a body of troops could not but exert an
+influence favorable to the measures and objects of Texas; and besides, it
+afterwards appeared the Indians had no disposition to take sides with
+Mexico, or to make any depredations on the territories of the United
+States. A call was made on Congress for an appropriation of a million of
+dollars to carry on these military operations, the entire tendency of
+which was to encourage Texas in its attempt to throw off the Mexican
+allegiance and re-establish slavery.
+
+The source from whence the authorities of Texas were confidently looking
+for assistance, and the ulterior object at which they were aiming in their
+insurrection--viz.: annexation to the United States, and thus adding
+territory and strength to the institution of slavery,--are clearly
+revealed in the following extracts from a letter addressed by Gen.
+Houston, commander of the Texian forces, to Gen. Dunlap, of Nashville,
+Tenn:--
+
+                                         "Near Sabine, July, 2, 1836.
+"To GEN. DUNLAP:
+SIR:--Your favor of the 1st of June reached me last evening. I regret so
+much delay will necessarily result before you can reach us. We will need
+your aid, and that speedily. The enemy, in large numbers, are reported to
+be in Texas. * * * * * The army with which they first entered Texas is
+broken up and dispersed by desertion and other causes. If they get another
+army of the extent proposed, it must be composed of new recruits, and men
+pressed into service. They will not possess the mechanical efficiency of
+discipline which gives the Mexican troops the only advantage they have.
+They will easily be routed by a very inferior force. For a portion of that
+force, we shall be obliged to look to the United States! It cannot reach
+us too soon. There is but one feeling in Texas, in my opinion, and that
+is, to establish the independence of Texas, and TO BE ATTACHED TO THE
+UNITED STATES! * * * * * March as speedily as possible, with all the aid
+you can bring, and I doubt not but you will be gratified with your
+reception and situation."
+
+The whole plan succeeded beyond the anticipation of its most sanguine
+projectors. Aided by men and means from the United States, Texas
+established its independence--organized a government--incorporated
+slavery into its constitution so thoroughly as to guard against the
+remotest attempt ever to remove it--and by a process unsurpassed in the
+annals of political intrigue, in due time became annexed to the North
+American Union. In this accession of a territory from which several large
+States will eventually be carved out, the slave power of the United States
+obtained a signal advantage, of which it will not be backward to avail
+itself in the time of its need. A faithful history of this entire movement
+is yet to be written.
+
+Mr. Adams, with his well-known and long-tried sagacity, saw at a glance
+the whole design of the originators of the Texas insurrection. While most
+people were averse to the belief that a project was seriously on foot to
+sever a large and free province from the Mexican Republic and annex it to
+the Union as slave territory, he read the design in legible characters
+from the beginning. In a speech made in the House of Representatives, in
+May, 1836, in reference to the call for a million of dollars, for purposes
+already stated, Mr. Adams unriddled the Texian project with the vision
+of a prophet.
+
+"Have we not seen American citizens," said Mr. Adams, "going from all
+parts of the country to carry on the war of this province against the
+united Government of Mexico? Who were those who fell at Alamo? Who are now
+fighting under the command of the hero [Footnote: General Houston.] of
+Texian fame? And have we not been called upon in this House, to recognize
+Texian independence? It seems that Gen. Gaines considers this a war in
+defence of 'our Texians.'"
+
+Mr. Cambreleng explained that the word "neighbors," had been accidentally
+omitted in Gen. Gaines' dispatch.
+
+Mr. Adams continued:--"Was this an intention to conquer Texas, to
+re-establish that slavery which had been abolished by the United Mexican
+States? If that was the case, and we were to be drawn into an
+acknowledgment of their independence, and then, by that preliminary act,
+by that acknowledgment, if we were upon their application to admit Texas
+to become a part of the United States, then the House ought to be informed
+of it. I shall be for no such war, nor for making any such addition to our
+territory. * * * * * * I hope Congress will take care to go into no war
+for the re-establishment of slavery where it has been abolished--that they
+will go into no war in behalf of 'our Texians,' or 'our Texian
+neighbors' and that they will go into no war with a foreign power, without
+other cause than the acquisition of territory."
+
+In a speech delivered a few days subsequent to the above, Mr. Adams used
+the following language:--
+
+"It is said that one of the earliest acts of this administration was a
+proposal, made at a time when there was already much ill-humor in Mexico
+against the United States, that she should cede to the United States a
+very large portion of her territory--large enough to constitute nine
+States equal in extent to Kentucky. It must be confessed that a device
+better calculated to produce jealousy, suspicion, ill-will and hatred,
+could not have been contrived. It is further affirmed that this overture,
+offensive in itself, was made precisely at the time when a swarm of
+colonists from these United States, were covering the Mexican border with
+land-jobbing, and with slaves, introduced in defiance of Mexican laws, by
+which slavery had been abolished throughout the Republic. The war now
+raging in Texas is a Mexican civil war, and a war for the reestablishment
+of slavery where it was abolished. It is not a servile war, but a war
+between slavery and emancipation, and every possible effort has been made
+to drive us into the war on the side of slavery."
+
+"When, in the year 1836, resolutions to recognize the independence of
+Texas came up in the House of Representatives, Mr. Adams opposed them with
+great energy and eloquence, and provoked a most ardent and violent debate.
+Mr. Waddy Thompson, then a Representative in Congress, and subsequently
+Minister to Mexico, advocated the passage of the resolutions; and, in
+doing so, said that Mr. Adams, in negotiating the Florida treaty, actually
+ceded to Mexico the whole of Texas, a province that was part and parcel of
+this Union.
+
+"Mr. Adams immediately arrested the speech of Mr. Thompson, and denied the
+impeachment. Mr. Thompson rejoined, and, to strengthen his position,
+quoted some remarks Gen. Jackson had made on the subject, confirmatory of
+the charge of having sacrificed the national domain, in the Florida
+negotiation.
+
+"Mr. Adams replied with great warmth; and went into a minute and
+interesting narrative of the whole transaction. Among other things, he
+said that, before the Florida treaty was signed, he took it to Gen.
+Jackson, to obtain his opinion of it; and that it was unconditionally
+approved by him.
+
+"Mr. Thompson was surprised at the announcement of this fact. It weakened
+his position very materially; and he resumed his seat a defeated
+antagonist. So said the House of Representatives, with scarcely the
+exception of a member.
+
+"Mr. Adams continued his defence. 'At that time,' said he, 'General
+Jackson was in this city, on exciting business connected with the Seminole
+war; and, after the treaty had been concluded, and only wanted the
+signatures of the contracting parties, the then President of the United
+States directed me to call on General Jackson, in my official capacity as
+Secretary of State, and obtain his opinion in reference to boundaries. I
+did call. General Jackson, sir, was at that time holding his quarters in
+the hotel at the other end of the avenue, now kept by Mr. Azariah Fuller,
+but then under the management of Jonathan McCarty. The day was
+exceedingly warm, and, on entering General Jackson's parlor, I found him
+much exhausted by excitement, and the intensity of the weather. I made
+known to him the object of my visit; when he replied that I would greatly
+oblige him if I would excuse him from looking into the matter then. "Leave
+the papers with me, sir, till to-morrow, or the next day, and I will
+examine them." I did leave them sir; and the next day called for the
+hero's opinion and decision. Sir, I recollect the occurrence perfectly
+well; General Jackson was still unwell; and the papers, with an
+accompanying map, were spread before him. With his cane, sir, he pointed
+to the boundaries, as they had been agreed upon by the parties; and, sir,
+with a very emphatic expression, which I need not repeat, he affirmed
+them.'
+
+"This debate, whilst yet warm from the hands of the reporters, reached
+General Jackson; and was at once pressed upon his attention. Its
+contradiction and refutation were deemed matters of paramount importance.
+The old soldier did not hesitate long to act in the matter, and speedily
+there appeared in the Globe newspaper a letter, signed Andrew Jackson,
+denying, in unqualified and unconditional terms, everything that Mr. Adams
+had uttered. He denied having been in Washington at the time Mr. Adams
+designated; but afterwards, being convinced that he was in error, in this
+fact only he corrected himself, but denied most positively that he had
+seen the Florida treaty, or Mr. Adams, at the time of its negotiation, or
+that he had had the remotest agency or connection with the transaction.
+
+"Mr. Adams responded, and appealed to his diary, where everything was set
+forth with the utmost precision and accuracy. The year, day of the month,
+and of the week, and the very hour of the day, all were faithfully
+recorded.
+
+"The affair produced much sensation at Washington; and even the most
+determined advocates of General Jackson believed that he, and not Mr.
+Adams, was in error, No one would, or could for a moment, believe that Mr.
+Adams' had made a false report.'
+
+"Whilst this controversy was pending, I called at the Presidential
+mansion, one afternoon, when General Jackson, strange to say, happened to
+be alone. He said that he was very glad to see me, because he would like
+to hear, from one who had an opportunity of seeing more of the press than
+he saw, what was the exact state of public opinion, in regard to the
+controversy.
+
+"'As far as I am capable of judging, Mr. President,' I replied, 'the
+people appear to be unanimous in the opinion that there is a
+misunderstanding, a misapprehension, between you and Mr. Adams; for no one
+imagines, for a moment, that either of you would misrepresent facts! Mr.
+Adams is a man of infinite method; he is generally accurate, and, in this
+instance, it appears that he is sustained by his diary.'
+
+"'His diary! don't tell' me anything more about his diary! Sir, that diary
+comes up on all occasions--one would think that its pages were as
+immutable as the laws of the Medes and Persians! Sir, that diary will be
+the death of me! I wonder if James Monroe kept a diary! If he did, it is
+to be hoped that it will be looked to, to see if it contains anything
+about this Adams and Dan Onis treaty. Sir, I did not see it; I was not
+consulted about it.'
+
+"The old hero was exceedingly vehement, and was proceeding to descant with
+especial violence, when he was interrupted by the entrance of Mr.
+Secretary Woodbury, and I never heard another word about the matter. A
+question of veracity between the parties was raised, and was never
+adjudicated. Both went down to the grave before any definite light was
+cast on the subject; but the world had decided that General Jackson was in
+error." [Footnote: Reminiscences of the late John Quincy Adams, by an Old
+Colony Man.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+MR. ADAMS PRESENTS PETITIONS FOR THE ABOLISHMENT OF SLAVERY--OPPOSITION
+OF SOUTHERN MEMBERS--EXCITING SCENES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--
+MARKS OF CONFIDENCE IN MR. ADAMS.
+
+
+In the meantime, during the years 1836 and 1837, the public mind in the
+Northern States, became fully aroused to the enormities of American
+slavery--its encroachments on the rights and interests of the free
+States--the undue influence it was exercising in our national
+councils--and the evident determination to enlarge its borders and its
+evils, by the addition of new and large territories. Petitions for the
+abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia and
+the Territories, began to pour into Congress, from every section of the
+East and North. These were generally presented by Mr. Adams. His age and
+experience--his well-known influence in the House of Representatives--his
+patriotism, and his intrepid advocacy of human freedom--inspired the
+confidence of the people of the free States, and led them to entrust to
+him their petitions. With scrupulous fidelity he performed the duty thus
+imposed upon him. Whoever petitions might come from--whatever the nature
+of  their prayer--whether for such objects as he could sanction or not--if
+they were clothed in respectful language, Mr. Adams felt himself under an
+imperative obligation to present them to Congress. For several sessions at
+this period, few days passed without his presenting more or less petitions
+having some relation to the subject of slavery.
+
+The southern members of Congress became alarmed at these demonstrations,
+and determined to arrest them, even at the sacrifice, if need be, of the
+right of petition--the most sacred privilege of freemen. On the 8th of
+Feb., 1836, a committee was raised by the House of Representatives, to
+take into consideration what disposition should be made of petitions and
+memorials for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade, in the
+District of Columbia, and report thereon. This committee consisted of
+Messrs. Pinckney of South Carolina, Hamer of Ohio, Pierce of New
+Hampshire, Hardin of Kentucky, Jarvis of Maine, Owens of Georgia,
+Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, Dromgoole of Virginia, and Turrill of New
+York. On the 18th of May, the committee made a lengthy and unanimous
+report, through Mr. Pinckney, recommending the adoption of the following
+resolutions:--
+
+"Resolved, That Congress possesses no constitutional authority to
+interfere in any way with the institution of slavery in any of the States
+of this Confederacy.
+
+"Resolved, That Congress ought not to interfere in any way with slavery in
+the District of Columbia.
+
+"And whereas, It is extremely important and desirable that the agitation
+of this subject should be finally arrested, for the purpose of restoring
+tranquillity to the public mind, your committee respectfully recommend the
+adoption of the following additional resolution, viz.:--
+
+"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions or
+papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of
+slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed
+or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever
+shall be had thereon."
+
+When the first of these resolutions was taken up, Mr. Adams said, if the
+House would allow him five minutes' time, he would prove the resolution to
+be untrue. His request was denied.
+
+On the third resolution Mr. Adams refused to vote, and sent to the
+Speaker's chair the following declaration, demanding that it should be
+placed on the journal of the House, there to stand to the latest
+posterity:--
+
+"I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the
+United States, of the rules of this House, and of the rights of my
+constituents."
+
+Notwithstanding the rule embodied in this resolution virtually trampled
+the right of petition into the dust, yet it was adopted by the House, by a
+large majority. But Mr. Adams was not to be deterred by this arbitrary
+restriction, from a faithful discharge of his duty as a representative of
+the people. Petitions on the subject of slavery continued to be
+transmitted to him in increased numbers. With unwavering firmness--against
+a bitter and unscrupulous opposition, exasperated to the highest pitch by
+his pertinacity--amidst a perfect tempest of vituperation and abuse--he
+persevered in presenting these petitions, one by one, to the amount
+sometimes of two hundred in a day--demanding the action of the House on
+each separate petition.
+
+His position amid these scenes was in the highest degree illustrious and
+sublime. An old man, with the weight of years upon him, forgetful of the
+elevated stations he had occupied, and the distinguished honors received
+for past services, turning away from the repose which age so greatly
+needs, and laboring, amidst scorn and derision, and threats of expulsion
+and assassination, to maintain the sacred right of petition for the
+poorest and humblest in the land--insisting that the voice of a free
+people should be heard by their representatives, when they would speak in
+condemnation of human slavery and call upon them to maintain the
+principles of liberty embodied in the immortal Declaration of
+Independence--was a spectacle unwitnessed before in the history of
+legislation. A few specimens of these transactions will enable the reader
+to judge of the trials Mr. Adams was compelled to endure in the discharge
+of his duties, and also of his moral courage and indomitable perseverance,
+amid the most appalling circumstances.
+
+On the 6th of Jan., 1837, Mr. Adams presented the petition of one hundred
+and fifty women, whom he stated to be the wives and daughters of his
+immediate constituents, praying for the abolition of slavery in the
+District of Columbia, and moved that the petition be read.
+
+Mr. Glascock objected to its reception.
+
+Mr. Parks moved that the preliminary motion, on the reception of the
+petition, be laid on the table, which was carried.
+
+Mr. Adams said, that if he had understood the decision of the Speaker in
+this case, it was not the petition itself which was laid upon the table,
+but the motion to receive. In order to save the time of the House, he
+wished to give notice that he should call up that motion, for decision,
+every day, so long as he should be permitted to do so by the House;
+because he should not consider his duty accomplished so long as the
+petition was not received, and so long as the House had not decided that
+it would not receive it.
+
+Mr. Pinckney rose to a question of order, and inquired if there was now
+any question pending before the House?
+
+The Speaker said, he had understood the gentleman from Massachusetts as
+merely giving notice of a motion hereafter to be made. In doing so, it
+certainly was not in order to enter into debate.
+
+Mr. Adams said, that so long as freedom of speech was allowed to him as a
+member of that House, he would call up that question until it should be
+decided.
+
+Mr. Adams was called to order.
+
+Mr. A. said, he would then have the honor of presenting to the House the
+petition of two hundred and twenty-eight women, the wives and daughters of
+his immediate constituents; and as a part of the speech which he intended
+to make, he would take the liberty of reading the petition. It was not
+long, and would not consume much time.
+
+Mr. Glascock objected to the reception of the petition.
+
+Mr. Adams proceeded to read, that the petitioners, inhabitants of South
+Weymouth, in the State of Massachusetts, "impressed with the sinfulness of
+slavery, and keenly aggrieved by its existence in a part of our country
+over which Congress--"
+
+Mr. Pinckney rose to a question of order. Had the gentleman from
+Massachusetts a right, under the rule, to read the petition?
+
+The Speaker said, the gentleman from Massachusetts had a right to make a
+statement of the contents of the petition.
+
+Mr. Pinckney desired the decision of the Speaker as to whether a
+gentleman had a right to read a petition.
+
+Mr. Adams said he was reading the petition as a part of his speech, and he
+took this to be one of the privileges of a member of the House. It was a
+privilege he would exercise till he should be deprived of it by some
+positive act.
+
+The Speaker repeated that the gentleman from Massachusetts had a right to
+make a brief statement of the contents of the petition. It was not for the
+Speaker to decide whether that brief statement should be made in the
+gentleman's own language, or whether he should look over the petition, and
+take his statement from that.
+
+Mr. Adams.--At the time my friend from South Carolina--
+
+The Speaker said the gentleman must proceed to state the contents of the
+petition.
+
+Mr. Adams.-I am doing so, sir.
+
+The Speaker.--Not in the opinion of the chair.
+
+Mr. Adams.--I was at this point of the petition--"Keenly aggrieved by its
+existence in a part of our country over which Congress possesses exclusive
+jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever--"
+
+Loud cries of "Order," "Order!"
+
+Mr. Adams.-"Do most earnestly petition your honorable body--"
+
+Mr. Chambers of Kentucky rose to a point of order.
+
+Mr. Adams.--"Immediately to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia--"
+
+Mr. Chambers reiterated his call to order, and the Speaker directed Mr.
+Adams to take his seat.
+
+Mr. Adams proceeded with great rapidity of enunciation, and in a very loud
+tone of voice--"And to declare every human being free who sets foot upon
+its soil!"
+
+The confusion in the hall at this time was very great. The Speaker decided
+that it was not in order for a member to read a petition, whether it was
+long or short.
+
+Mr. Adams appealed from any decision which went to establish the principle
+that a member of the House should not have the power to read what he
+chose. He had never before heard of such a thing. If this practice was to
+be reversed, let the decision stand upon record, and let it appear how
+entirely the freedom of speech was suppressed in this House. If the
+reading of a paper was to be suppressed in his person, so help him God, he
+would only consent to it as a matter of record.
+
+Mr. Adams finished the petition. The petitioners "respectfully announce
+their intention to present the same petition yearly before this honorable
+body, that it might at least be a memorial in the holy cause of human
+freedom that they had done what they could."
+
+These words were read amidst tumultuous cries for "order," from every part
+of the House. The petition was finally received, and laid upon the table.
+
+Other scenes of a still more exciting character soon occurred.
+
+On the 7th of February, 1837, after Mr. Adams had offered some two hundred
+or more abolition petitions, he came to a halt; and, without yielding the
+floor, employed himself in packing up his budget. He was about resuming
+his seat, when he took up a paper, and hastily glancing at it, exclaimed,
+in a shrill tone--
+
+"Mr. Speaker, I have in my possession a petition of a somewhat
+extraordinary character; and I wish to inquire of the chair if it be in
+order to present it."
+
+"If the gentleman from Massachusetts," said the Speaker, "will inform the
+chair what the character of the petition is, it will probably be able to
+decide on the subject."
+
+"Sir," ejaculated Mr. Adams, "the petition is signed by eleven slaves of
+the town of Fredericksburgh, in the county of Culpepper, in the state of
+Virginia. It is one of those petitions which, it has occurred to my mind,
+are not what they purport to be. It is signed partly by persons who cannot
+write, by making their marks, and partly by persons whose handwriting
+would manifest that they have received the education of slaves. The
+petition declares itself to be from slaves, and I am requested to present
+it. I will send it to the chair."
+
+The Speaker (Mr. Polk,) who habitually extended to Mr. Adams every
+courtesy and kindness imaginable, was taken by surprise, and found himself
+involved in a dilemma. Giving his chair one of those hitches which ever
+denoted his excitement, he said that a petition from slaves was a novelty,
+and involved a question that he did not feel called upon to decide. He
+would like to take time to consider it; and, in the meantime, would refer
+it to the House.
+
+The House was very thin at the time, and little attention was paid to what
+was going on, till the excitement of the Speaker attracted the attention
+of Mr. Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama, who impatiently, and under great
+excitement, rose and inquired what the petition was.
+
+Mr. Speaker afforded the required information. Mr. Lewis, forgetting all
+discretion, whilst he frothed at the mouth, turned towards Mr. Adams, and
+ejaculated at the top of his voice, "By G-d, sir, this is not to be
+endured any longer!"
+
+"Treason! treason!" screamed a half dozen other members. "Expel the old
+scoundrel; put him out; do not let him disgrace the House any longer!"
+
+"Get up a resolution to meet the case," exclaimed a member from North
+Carolina.
+
+Mr. George C. Dromgoole, who had acquired a very favorable reputation as
+a parliamentarian, was selected as the very man who, of all others, was
+most capable of drawing up a resolution that would meet and cover the
+emergency. He produced a resolution with a preamble, in which it was
+stated, substantially, that, whereas the Hon. John Quincy Adams, a
+representative from Massachusetts, had presented to the House of
+Representatives a petition signed by negro slaves, thus "giving color to
+an idea" that bondmen were capable of exercising the right of petition, it
+was "Resolved, That he be taken to the bar of the House, and be censured
+by the Speaker thereof."
+
+Mr. Haynes said, the true motion, in his judgment, would be to move that
+the petition be rejected.
+
+Mr. Lewis hoped that no motion of that kind would come from any gentleman
+from a slaveholding section of the country.
+
+Mr. Haynes said he would cheerfully withdraw his motion.
+
+Mr. Lewis was glad the motion was withdrawn. He believed that the House
+should punish severely such an infraction of its decorum and its rules;
+and he called on the members from the slaveholding States to come forward
+now and demand of the House the punishment of the gentleman from
+Massachusetts.
+
+Mr. Grantland, of Georgia, would second the motion, and go all lengths in
+support of it.
+
+Mr. Lewis said, that if the House would inflict no punishment for such
+flagrant violations of its dignity as this, it would be better for the
+Representatives from the slaveholding Slates to go home at once.
+
+Mr. Alford said, if the gentleman from Massachusetts intended to present
+this petition, the moment it was presented he should move, as an act of
+justice to the South, which he in part represented, and which he conceived
+had been treated with indignity, that it be taken from the House and
+burnt; and he hoped that every man who was a friend to the constitution,
+would support him. There must be an end to this constant attempt to raise
+excitement, or the Union could not exist much longer. The moment any man
+should disgrace the Government under which he lived, by presenting a
+petition from slaves, praying for emancipation, he hoped that petition
+would, by order of the House, be committed to the flames.
+
+Mr. Waddy Thompson moved the following resolution:--
+
+"Resolved, That the Hon. John Quincy Adams, by the attempt just made by
+him to introduce a petition purporting on its face to be from slaves, has
+been guilty of a gross disrespect to this House, and that he be instantly
+brought to the bar, to receive the severe censure of the Speaker."
+
+The idea of bringing the venerable ex-President to the bar, like a
+culprit, to receive a reprimand from a comparatively youthful Speaker,
+would be a spectacle so disgraceful, and withal so absurd, that the
+proposition met with no favor. An easier way to reprimand was devised. Mr.
+Haynes introduced the following resolution:--
+
+"Resolved, That John Quincy Adams, a Representative from the State of
+Massachusetts, has rendered himself justly liable to the severest censure
+of this House, and is censured accordingly, for having attempted to
+present to the House the petition of slaves."
+
+Several other resolutions and propositions, from members of slaveholding
+States, were submitted to the House; but none proved satisfactory even to
+themselves. Mr. Adams, unmoved by the tempest which raged around him,
+defended himself, and the integrity of his purpose, with the distinguished
+ability and eloquence which characterized all his public labors.
+
+"In regard to the resolutions now before the House," said he, "as they all
+concur in naming me, and in charging me with high crimes and misdemeanors,
+and in calling me to the bar of the House to answer for my crimes, I have
+thought it was my duty to remain silent, until it should be the pleasure
+of the House to act either on one or the other of these resolutions. I
+suppose that if I shall be brought to the bar of the House, I shall not be
+struck mute by the previous question, before I have an opportunity to say
+a word or two in my own defence. * * * * * *
+
+"Now, as to the fact what the petition was for, I simply state to the
+gentleman from Alabama, (Mr. D. H. Lewis,) who has sent to the table a
+resolution assuming that this petition was for the abolition of slavery--I
+state to him that he is mistaken. He must amend his resolution; for if the
+House should choose to read this petition, I can state to them they would
+find it something very much the reverse of that which the resolution
+states it to be. And if the gentleman from Alabama still chooses to bring
+me to the bar of the House, he must amend his resolution in a very
+important particular; for he may probably have to put into it, that my
+crime has been for attempting to introduce the petition of slaves that
+slavery should not be abolished. * * * * * *
+
+"Sir, it is well known, that from the time I entered this House, down to
+the present day, I have felt it a sacred duty to present any petition,
+couched in respectful language, from any citizen of the United States, be
+its object what it may; be the prayer of it that in which I could concur,
+or that to which I was utterly opposed. It is for the sacred right of
+petition that I have adopted this course. * * * * * * * * Where is your
+law which says that the mean, and the low, and the degraded, shall be
+deprived of the right of petition, if their moral character is not good?
+Where, in the land of freemen, was the right of petition ever placed on
+the exclusive basis of morality and virtue? Petition is supplication--it
+is entreaty--it is prayer! And where is the degree of vice or immorality
+which shall deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or
+to pray for mercy? Where is such a law to be found? It does not belong to
+the most abject despotism! There is no absolute monarch on earth, who is
+not compelled, by the constitution of his country, to receive the
+petitions of his people, whosoever they may be. The Sultan of
+Constantinople cannot walk the streets and refuse to receive petitions
+from the meanest and vilest of the land. This is the law even of
+despotism. And what does your law say? Does it say that, before presenting
+a petition, you shall look into it, and see whether it comes from the
+virtuous, and the great, and the mighty? No sir; it says no such thing.
+The right of petition belongs to all. And so far from refusing to present
+a petition because it might come from those low in the estimation of the
+world, it would be an additional incentive, if such incentive were
+wanting.
+
+"But I must admit," continued Mr. Adams, sarcastically, "that when color
+comes into the question, there may be other considerations. It is possible
+that this house, which seems to consider it so great a crime to attempt to
+offer a petition from slaves, may, for aught I know, say that freemen, if
+not of the carnation, shall be deprived of the right of petition, in the
+sense of the House."
+
+When southern members saw that, in their haste, they had not tarried to
+ascertain the nature of the petition, and that it prayed for the
+perpetuation, instead of the abolition of slavery, their position became
+so ludicrous, that their exasperation was greatly increased. At the time
+the petition was announced by Mr. Adams, the House was very thin; but the
+excitement it produced soon filled it; and, besides, the sergeant-at-arms
+had been instructed to arrest and bring in all absentees. The excitement
+commenced at about one o'clock, and continued until seven o'clock in the
+evening, when the House adjourned. Mr. Adams stood at his desk, resolutely
+refusing to be seated till the matter was disposed of, alleging that if he
+were guilty, he was not entitled to a seat among high and honorable men.
+When Mr. Droomgoole's resolution was read to the House for its
+consideration, Mr. Adams yielded to it one of those sarcastic sneers which
+he was in the habit of giving, when provoked to satire; and said--"Mr.
+Speaker, if I understand the resolution of the honorable gentleman from
+Virginia, it charges me with being guilty of giving color to an idea!'"
+The whole House broke forth in one common irrepressible peal of laughter.
+The Droomgoole resolution was actually laughed out of existence. The
+House now found that it had got itself in a dilemma,--that Mr. Adams was
+too much for it; and, at last, adjourned, leaving the affair in the
+position in which they found it.
+
+For several days this subject continued to agitate the House. Mr. Adams
+not only warded off the virulent attacks made upon him, but carried the
+war so effectually into the camp of his enemies, that, becoming heartily
+tired of the contest, they repeatedly endeavored to get rid of the whole
+subject by laying it on the table. To this Mr. Adams objected. He insisted
+that it should be thoroughly canvassed. Immense excitement ensued. Call
+after call of the House was made. Mr. Henry A. Wise, who was, at the time,
+engaged on the Reuben Whitney affair, was sent for: with an accompanying
+message that the stability of the Union was in danger!
+
+Breathless, and impatient, Mr. Wise made his appearance, and inquired what
+was the matter. He was informed.
+
+"And is that all?" ejaculated Mr. Wise. "The gentleman from Massachusetts
+has presented a petition signed by slaves! Well, sir, and what of that? Is
+anybody harmed by it? Sir, in my opinion, slaves are the very persons who
+should petition. Mine, sir, pray to me, and I listen to them; and shall
+not the feeble supplicate? Sir, I see no danger,--the country, I believe,
+is safe."
+
+At length the exciting subject was brought to a termination, by the
+passage of the following preamble and resolutions; much softened, it will
+be seen, in comparison with the measures first proposed:--
+
+"An inquiry having been made by an honorable gentleman from Massachusetts,
+whether a paper which he held in his hand, purporting to be a petition
+from certain slaves, and declaring themselves to be slaves, came within
+the order of the House of the 18th of January,[Footnote: This order was
+the same as that adopted by the House on the 18th of May, 1836. See p.
+281.] and the said paper not having been received by the Speaker, he
+stated that in a case so extraordinary and novel, he would take the advice
+and counsel of the House.
+
+"Resolved, That this House cannot receive said petition without
+disregarding its own dignity, the rights of a large class of citizens of
+the South and West, and the Constitution of the United States.
+
+"Resolved, That slaves do not possess the right of petition secured to
+the citizens of the United States by the constitution."
+
+The slave petition is believed to have been a counterfeit, manufactured by
+certain members from slaveholding States, and was sent to Mr. Adams by the
+way of experiment--with the double design of ascertaining if he could be
+imposed upon; and, if the deception succeeded, those who got it up were
+curious to know if the venerable statesman would redeem his pledge, and
+present a petition, no matter who it came from. He was too wily not to
+detect the plot at the outset; he knew that all was a hoax; but, he
+resolved to present the paper, and then turn the tables on its authors.
+[Footnote: Reminiscences of the late John Quincy Adams, by an Old Colony
+Man.]
+
+On the 20th of December, 1838, Mr. Adams presented a petition praying for
+the establishment of international relations with the Republic of Hayti,
+and moved that it be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with
+instructions to consider and report thereon. This motion was opposed with
+great warmth by members from slaveholding States. Mr. Adams was repeatedly
+interrupted during the delivery of the brief speech he made on the
+occasion.
+
+Mr. Bynum insisted that the gentleman from Massachusetts should take his
+seat, under the rule. If, however, he was permitted to proceed, Mr. B.
+hoped some gentleman of the slaveholding portion of the House would be
+allowed to answer him.
+
+Mr. Adams.--Sir, I hope so. Only open our mouths, gentlemen; that is all
+we ask, and you may answer as much as you please.
+
+Mr. Bynum.--I object to the gentleman proceeding further with his
+observations, except by consent of the House. If we have rules we had
+better either obey them or burn them.
+
+The House voted, by 114 to 47, to allow Mr. Adams to proceed.
+
+In continuing his speech, Mr. Adams said, that even admitting the object
+of the petitioners is abolition, as has been alleged, they had the right
+to petition for that too; for every individual in the country had a right
+to be an abolitionist. The great men of the Revolution were abolitionists,
+and if any man denies it, I will prove it.
+
+Mr. Wise.--I deny it.
+
+The Speaker said this was out of order.
+
+Mr. Adams.--I feel obliged to the gentleman from Virginia for giving me
+the invitation, and I will now prove what I say.
+
+The Speaker said this did not form any part of the question before the
+House.
+
+Mr. Adams.--George Washington, in articulo mortis, by his last will and
+testament, before God, his Creator, emancipated his slaves.
+
+Mr. Wise.--Because he had no children.
+
+The Speaker again interposed, and said the gentleman could not go into
+that question. It was entirely out of order.
+
+Mr. Adams.--I did but accept the invitation of the gentleman from
+Virginia. I do not wish to go further. I simply take the position that
+George Washington was an abolitionist in the most extensive sense of the
+term; and I defy any man in this House to the discussion, and to prove to
+the contrary if he can.
+
+The Speaker called Mr. Adams to order.
+
+Mr. Adams.--Well, sir, I was stating the high authority which is to be
+found for the principles of abolition. Does the gentleman from Virginia
+deny that Thomas Jefferson was an abolitionist?
+
+Mr. Wise.--I do.
+
+The Speaker again interposed.
+
+Mr. Adams.--Well, sir, then I come back to my position, that every man in
+this country has a right to be an abolitionist, and that in being so he
+offends no law, but, in my opinion, obeys the most sacred of all laws.
+
+The motion to instruct the committee, was finally laid upon the table.
+
+Mr. Adams was evidently anxious to engage in a legitimate discussion, in
+the House of Representatives, of the subject of slavery in all its
+bearings, influences, and results. Such a discussion, coolly and
+deliberately entered upon, by men of the most distinguished abilities in
+the nation, could not but have been pregnant with lasting good, not only
+to the North, but also to the South and the entire country. To afford
+opportunity for a dignified and profitable investigation of this momentous
+topic, Mr. Adams, on the 25th of Feb., 1839, proposed the following
+amendments to the Constitution of the United States:--
+
+"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress
+assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring therein, That the
+following amendments to the Constitution of the United States be proposed
+to the several States of the Union, which, when ratified by three-fourths
+of the legislatures of said States, shall become and be a part of the
+Constitution of the United States:--
+
+"1. From and after the 4th day of July, 1842, there shall be throughout
+the United States no hereditary slavery; but on and after that day, every
+child born within the United States, their territories or jurisdiction,
+shall be born free.
+
+"2. With the exception of the territory of Florida, there shall henceforth
+never be admitted into this Union, any State, the constitution of which
+shall tolerate within the same the existence of slavery.
+
+"3. From and after the 4th day of July, 1845, there shall be neither
+slavery nor slave trade, at the seat of Government of the United States."
+
+Instead of meeting and canvassing, in a manly and honorable manner, the
+vitally important question involved in these propositions, the
+slaveholding Representatives objected to its coming before the House for
+consideration, in any form whatever. In this instance, as in most others,
+where the merits of slavery are involved, the supporters of that
+institution manifested a timidity, a want of confidence in its legitimacy,
+of the most suspicious nature. If slavery is lawful and defensible--if it
+violates no true principle among men, no human right bestowed by the
+Creator--if it can be tolerated and perpetuated in harmony with republican
+institutions and our Declaration of Independence--if its existence in the
+bosom of the Confederacy involves no incongruity, and is calculated to
+promote the prosperity and stability of the Union, or the welfare of the
+slaveholding States themselves--these are facts which can be made evident
+to the world, by the unsurpassed abilities of southern statesmen. Why,
+then, object to a candid and fearless investigation of the subject? But if
+slavery is the reverse of all this--if it is a moral poison, contaminating
+and blighting everything connected with it, and containing the seeds of
+its own dissolution sooner or later--why should wise, sagacious
+politicians, prudent and honest men, and conscientious Christians, shut
+their eyes and turn away from a fact so appalling and so dangerous. No man
+of intelligence can hope, in this age of the world, to perpetuate that
+which is wrong and destructive, by bravado and threatening--by refusing to
+look it in the face, or to allow others to scrutinize it. Error must pass
+away. Truth, however unpalatable, or however it may be obscured for a
+season, must eventually triumph. The very exertions of its supporters to
+perpetuate wrong, will but hasten its death.
+
+  "Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again;
+     Th' eternal years of God are hers:
+   But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
+     And dies among her worshippers."
+
+Notwithstanding the course Mr. Adams felt himself compelled to pursue led
+him frequently into collision with a large portion of the Members of the
+House of Representatives, and caused them sometimes, in the heat of
+excitement, to forget the deference due his age, his experience, and
+commanding abilities, yet there was ever a deep, under-current feeling of
+veneration for him, pervading all hearts. Those who were excited to the
+highest pitch of frenzy by his proceedings, could not but admire the
+singleness of his purpose, and his undaunted courage in discharging his
+duties. On all subjects aside from slavery, his influence in the House has
+never been surpassed. Whenever he arose to speak, it was a signal for a
+general abandonment of listlessness and inattention. Members dropped their
+newspapers and pamphlets--knots of consulting politicians in different
+parts of the Hall were dissolved--Representatives came hastily in from
+lobbies, committee-rooms, the surrounding grounds--and all eagerly
+clustered around his chair to listen to words of wisdom, patriotism, and
+truth, as they dropped burning from the lips of "the old man eloquent!"
+The confidence placed in him in emergencies, was unbounded. A case in
+point is afforded in the history of the difficulty occasioned by the
+double delegation from New Jersey.
+
+On the opening of the 26th Congress, in December, 1839, in consequence of
+a two-fold delegation from New-Jersey, the House was unable, for some
+time, to complete its organization, and presented to the country and the
+world the perilous and discreditable aspect of the assembled
+Representatives of the people, unable to form themselves into a
+constitutional body. On first assembling, the House has no officers, and
+the Clerk of the preceding Congress acts, by usage, as chairman of the
+body, till a Speaker is chosen. On this occasion, after reaching the State
+of New Jersey, the acting Clerk declined to proceed in calling the roll,
+and refused to entertain any of the motions which were made for the
+purpose of extricating the House from its embarrassment. Many of the
+ablest and most judicious members had addressed the House in vain, and
+there was nothing but confusion and disorder in prospect.
+
+The fourth day opened, and still confusion was triumphant. But the hour of
+disenthrallment was at hand, and a scene was presented which sent the
+mind back to those days when Cromwell uttered the exclamation--"Sir Harry
+Vane! wo unto you, Sir Harry Vane!"--and in an instant dispersed the
+famous Rump Parliament.
+
+Mr. Adams, from the opening of this scene of confusion and anarchy, had
+maintained a profound silence. He appeared to be engaged most of the time
+in writing. To a common observer, he seemed to be reckless of everything
+around him--but nothing, not the slightest incident, escaped him. The
+fourth day of the struggle had now commenced; Mr. Hugh H. Garland, the
+Clerk, was directed to call the roll again.
+
+He commenced with Maine, as was usual in those days, and was proceeding
+toward Massachusetts. I turned, and saw that Mr. Adams was ready to get
+the floor at the earliest moment possible. His keen eye was riveted on the
+Clerk; his hands clasped the front edge of his desk, where he always
+placed them to assist him in rising. He looked, in the language of Otway,
+like the
+
+                     "--fowler, eager for his prey."
+
+"New Jersey!" ejaculated Mr. Hugh H. Garland, "and the Clerk has to repeat
+that--"
+
+Mr. Adams sprang to the floor!
+
+"I rise to interrupt the Clerk," was his first ejaculation.
+
+"Silence, silence," resounded through the hall; "hear him, hear him! Here
+what he has to say; hear John Quincy Adams!" was the unanimous ejaculation
+on all sides.
+
+In an instant, the most profound silence reigned throughout the Hall--you
+might have heard a leaf of paper fall in any part of it--and every eye was
+riveted on the venerable Nestor of Massachusetts--the purest of
+statesmen, and the noblest of men! He paused for a moment; and, having
+given Mr. Garland a
+
+                           "--withering look!"
+
+he proceeded to address the multitude:
+
+"It was not my intention," said he, "to take any part in these
+extraordinary proceedings. I had hoped that this House would succeed in
+organizing itself; that a Speaker and Clerk would be elected, and that the
+ordinary business of legislation would be progressed in. This is not the
+time, or place, to discuss the merits of the conflicting claimants for
+seats from New Jersey; that subject belongs to the House of
+Representatives, which, by the constitution, is made the ultimate arbiter
+of the qualifications of its members. But what a spectacle we here
+present! We degrade and disgrace ourselves; we degrade and disgrace our
+constituents and the country. We do not, and cannot organize; and why?
+Because the Clerk of this House, the mere Clerk, whom we create, whom we
+employ, and whose existence depends upon our will, usurps the throne, and
+sets us, the Representatives, the vicegerents of the whole American
+people, at defiance, and holds us in contempt! And what is this Clerk of
+yours? Is he to control the destinies of sixteen millions of freemen? Is
+he to suspend, by his mere negative, the functions of Government, and put
+an end to this Congress? He refuses to call the roll! It is in your power
+to compel him to call it, if he will not do it voluntarily. [Here he was
+interrupted by a member, who said that he was authorized to say that
+compulsion could not reach the Clerk, who had avowed that he would resign,
+rather than call the State of New Jersey.] Well, sir, then let him
+resign," continued Mr. Adams, "and we may possibly discover some way by
+which we can get along, without the aid of his all-powerful talent,
+learning and genius. If we cannot organize in any other way--if this Clerk
+of yours will not consent to our discharging the trusts confided to us by
+our constituents, then let us imitate the example of the Virginia House of
+Burgesses, which, when the colonial Governor Dinwiddie ordered it to
+disperse, refused to obey the imperious and insulting mandate, and, like
+men--"
+
+The multitude could not contain or repress their enthusiasm any longer,
+but saluted the eloquent and indignant speaker, and intercepted him with
+loud and deafening cheers, which seemed to shake the capitol to its
+centre. The very Genii of applause and enthusiasm seemed to float in the
+atmosphere of the Hall, and every heart expanded with an indescribable
+feeling of pride and exultation. The turmoil, the darkness, the very
+"chaos of anarchy," which had, for three successive days, pervaded the
+American Congress, was dispelled by the magic, the talismanic eloquence of
+a single man; and, once more the wheels of Government and of Legislation
+were put in motion.[Footnote: Reminiscences--by an Old Colony Man.]
+
+Having, by this powerful appeal, brought the yet unorganized assembly to a
+perception of its hazardous position, he submitted a motion requiring the
+acting Clerk to proceed in calling the roll. This and similar motions had
+already been made by other members. The difficulty was, that the acting
+Clerk declined to entertain them. Accordingly, Mr. Adams was immediately
+interrupted by a burst of voices demanding, "How shall the question be
+put?" "Who will put the question?" The voice of Mr. Adams was heard above
+the tumult, "I intend to put the question myself!" That word brought order
+out of chaos. There was the master mind.
+
+As soon as the multitude had recovered itself, and the excitement of
+irrepressible enthusiasm had abated, Mr. Richard Barnwell Rhett, of
+South Carolina, leaped upon one of the desks, waved his hand, and
+exclaimed:
+
+"I move that the Honorable John Quincy Adams take the chair of the Speaker
+of this House, and officiate as presiding officer, till the House be
+organized by the election of its constitutional officers! As many as are
+agreed to this will say ay; those--"
+
+He had not an opportunity to complete the sentence--"those who are not
+agreed, will say no,"--for one universal, deafening, thundering ay,
+responded to the nomination.
+
+Hereupon, it was moved and ordered that Lewis Williams, of North Carolina,
+and Richard Barnwell Rhett, conduct John Quincy Adams to the chair.
+
+Well did Mr. Wise, of Virginia, say, "Sir, I regard it as the proudest
+hour of your life; and if, when you shall be gathered to your fathers, I
+were asked to select the words which, in my judgment, are best calculated
+to give at once the character of the man, I would inscribe upon your tomb
+this sentence, 'I will put the question myself.'" [Footnote: In a public
+address, Mr. Adams once quoted the well known words of Tacitus, Annal.
+vi. 39--"Par negotiis neque supra"--applying them to a distinguished
+man, lately deceased. A lady wrote to inquire whence they came. Mr. Adams
+informed her, and added, that they could not be adequately translated in
+less than seven words in English. The lady replied that they might be well
+translated in five--Equal to, not above, duty--but better in three--JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS.--Massachusetts Quarterly Review.]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+MR. ADAMS' FIRMNESS IN DISCHARGE OF DUTY--HIS EXERTIONS IN BEHALF OF THE
+AMISTAD SLAVES--HIS CONNEXION WITH THE SMITHSONIAN BEQUEST--TOUR THROUGH
+CANADA AND NEW YORK--HIS RECEPTION AT BUFFALO--VISITS NIAGARA
+FALLS--ATTENDS WORSHIP WITH THE TUSCARORA INDIANS--HIS RECEPTION AT
+ROCHESTER--AT AUBURN--AT ALBANY--AT PITTSFIELD--VISITS CINCINNATI--ASSISTS
+IN LAYING THE CORNER STONE OF AN OBSERVATORY.
+
+
+It would be impossible, in the limit prescribed to these pages, to detail
+the numerous scenes and occurrences of a momentous nature, in which Mr.
+Adams took a prominent part during his services in the House of
+Representatives. The path he marked out for himself at the commencement of
+his congressional career, was pursued with unfaltering fidelity to the
+close of life. His was the rare honor of devoting himself, unreservedly,
+to his legitimate duties as a Representative of the people while in
+Congress, and to nothing else. He believed the halls of the Capitol were
+no place for political intrigue; and that a member of Congress, instead of
+studying to shape his course to make political capital or to subserve
+party ends, should devote himself rigidly and solely to the interests of
+his constituents.  His practice corresponded with his theory. His
+speeches, his votes, his entire labors in Congress, were confined strictly
+to practical subjects, vitally connected with the great interests of our
+common country, and had no political or party bearing, other than such as
+truth and public good might possess.
+
+His hostility to slavery and the assumptions and usurpations of slave
+power in the councils of the nation, continued to the day of his death. At
+the commencement of each session of Congress, he demanded that the
+infamous "gag rule," which forbid the presentation of petitions on the
+subject of slavery, should be abolished. But despite its continuance, he
+persisted in handing in petitions from the people of every class,
+complexion and condition. He did not hesitate to lay before the House of
+Representatives a petition from Haverhill, Mass., for the dissolution of
+the Union! Although opposed in his whole soul to the prayer of the
+petitioners, yet he believed himself sacredly bound to listen with due
+respect to every request of the people, when couched in respectful terms.
+
+In vain did the supporters of slavery endeavor to arrest his course, and
+to seal his lips in silence. In vain did they threaten
+assassination--expulsion from the House--indictment before the grand jury
+of the District of Columbia. In vain did they declare that he should "be
+made amenable to another tribunal, [mob-law] and as an incendiary, be
+brought to condign punishment." "My life on it," said a southern member,
+"if he presents that petition from slaves, we shall yet see him within the
+walls of the penitentiary." All these attempts at brow-beating moved him
+not a tittle. Firm he stood to his duty, despite the storms of angry
+passion which howled around him, and with withering rebukes repelled the
+assaults of hot-blooded opponents, as the proud old headland, jutting far
+into ocean's bosom, tosses high, in worthless spray, the dark mountain
+billows which in wrath beat upon it.
+
+"Do the gentlemen from the South," said he, "think they can frighten me by
+their threats? If that be their object, let me tell them, sir, they have
+mistaken their man. I am not to be frightened from the discharge of a
+sacred duty, by their indignation, by their violence, nor, sir, by all the
+grand juries in the universe. I have done only my duty; and I shall do it
+again under the same circumstances, even though they recur to-morrow."
+
+  "Though aged, he was so iron of limb,
+   None of the youth could cope with him;
+   And the foes whom he singly kept at bay,
+   Outnumbered his thin hairs of silver grey."
+
+Nor was Mr. Adams without encouragement in his trying position. His
+immediate constituents, at their primary meetings, repeatedly sent up a
+cheering voice in strong and earnest resolutions, approving heartily his
+course, and urging him to, perseverance therein. The Legislatures of
+Massachusetts and Vermont, rallied to his support. In solemn convocation,
+they protested against the virtual annihilation of the right of
+petition--against slavery and the slave trade in the District of
+Columbia--gave their entire sanction to the principles advocated by Mr.
+Adams, and pledged their countenance to all measures calculated to sustain
+them.
+
+Large bodies of people in the Eastern, Northern, and Middle States,
+sympathized with him in his support of the most sacred of privileges
+bestowed on man. Representative after Representative were sent to
+Congress, who gathered around him, and co-operated with him in his holy
+warfare against the iron rule which slavery had been enabled to establish
+in the national Legislature. With renewed energy he resisted the mighty
+current which was undermining the foundations of the Republic, and bearing
+away upon its turbid waters the liberties of the people. And he resisted
+not in vain.
+
+The brave old man lived to see his labors, in this department of duty,
+crowned with abundant success. One after another the cohorts of slavery
+gave way before the incessant assaults, the unwearied perseverance, of Mr.
+Adams, and the faithful compeers who were sent by the people to his
+support. At length, in 1845, the obnoxious "gag rule" was rescinded, and
+Congress consented to receive, and treat respectfully, all petitions on
+the subject of slavery. This was a moral triumph which amply compensated
+Mr. Adams for all the labors he had put forth, and for all the trials he
+had endured to achieve it.
+
+Yes; he "lived to hear that subject which of all others had been forbidden
+an entrance into the Halls of Congress, fairly broached. He lived to
+listen, with a delight all his own, to a high-souled, whole-hearted
+speech on the slave question, from his colleague, Mr. Palfrey--a speech,
+of which it is not too high praise to say, that it would not have
+disparaged the exalted reputation of Mr. Adams, had he made it himself.
+Aye, more, he lived to see the whole House of Representatives--the members
+from the South, not less than those from the North, attentive and
+respectful listeners to that speech of an hour's length, on the political
+as well as moral aspect of slavery in this Republic. What a triumph! At
+the close of it, the moral conqueror exclaimed, 'God be praised; the seals
+are broken, the door is open.'" [Footnote: Rev. S. J. May.]
+
+If anything were wanting to crown the fame of Mr. Adams, in the Last days
+of life, with imperishable honor, or to add, if possible, new brilliancy
+to the beams of his setting sun, it is found in his advocacy of the
+freedom of the Amistad slaves.
+
+A ship-load of negroes had been stolen from Africa, contrary to the law
+of nations, of humanity and of God, and surreptitiously smuggled, in the
+night, into the Island of Cuba. This act was piracy, according to the law
+of Spain, and of all Governments in Christendom, and the perpetrators
+thereof, had they been detected, would have been punished with death.
+Immediately after the landing of these unfortunate Africans, about
+thirty-six of them were purchased of the slave-pirates, by two Spaniards
+named Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes, who shipped them for Guanaja,
+Cuba, in the schooner "Amistad." When three days out from Havana, the
+Africans rose, killed the captain and crew, and took possession of the
+vessel--sparing the lives of their purchaser's, Ruiz and Montes. This
+transaction was unquestionably justifiable on the part of the negroes.
+They had been stolen from their native land--had fallen into the hands of
+pirates and robbers, and reduced to abject slavery. According to the first
+law of nature--the law of self-defence--implanted in the bosom of every
+human being by the Creator, they were justified in taking any measures
+necessary to restore them to the enjoyment of that freedom which was
+theirs by birthright.
+
+The negroes being unable to manage the schooner, compelled Ruiz and
+Montes to navigate her, and directed them to shape her course for Africa;
+for it was their design to return to their native land. But they were
+deceived by the two Spaniards, who brought the schooner to the coast of
+the United States, where she was taken possession of by Lieut. Gedney, of
+the U. S. surveying brig Washington, a few miles off Montauk Point, and
+brought into New London, Conn., The two Spaniards claimed the Africans as
+their property; and the Spanish Minister demanded of the President of the
+United States, that they be delivered up to the proper authorities, and
+taken back to Havana, to be tried for piracy and murder. The matter was
+brought before the District Court of Connecticut.
+
+In the mean time President Van Buren ordered the U. S. schooner Grampus,
+Lieut. John S. Paine, to repair to New Haven, to be in readiness to convey
+the Africans to Havana, should such be the decision of the Court. But the
+Court decided that the Government of the United States had no authority to
+return them into slavery; and directed that they be conveyed in one of our
+public ships to the shores of Africa, from whence they had but recently
+been torn away. From this decision the U. S. District Attorney appealed to
+the Supreme Court of the United States.
+
+These transactions attracted the attention of the whole people of the
+Union, and naturally excited the sympathy of the masses, pro and con, as
+they were favorable or unfavorable to the institution of slavery. Who
+should defend, in the Supreme Court, these poor outcasts--ignorant,
+degraded, wretched--who, fired with a noble energy, had burst the shackles
+of slavery, and by a wave of fortune had been thrown into the midst of a
+people professing freedom, yet keeping their feet on the necks of millions
+of slaves? The eyes of all the friends of human rights turned
+instinctively to JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Nor were their expectations
+disappointed. Without hesitation he espoused the cause of the Amistad
+negroes. At the age of seventy-four, he appeared in the Supreme Court of
+the United States to advocate their cause. He entered upon this labor with
+the enthusiasm of a youthful barrister, and displayed forensic talents, a
+critical knowledge of law, and of the inalienable rights of man, which
+would have added to the renown of the most eminent jurists of the day.
+
+"When he went to the Supreme Court, after an absence of thirty years, and
+arose to defend a body of friendless negroes, torn from their home and
+most unjustly held in thrall--when he asked the Judges to excuse him at
+once both for the trembling faults of age and the inexperience of youth,
+having labored so long elsewhere that he had forgotten the rules of
+court--when he summed up the conclusion of the whole matter, and brought
+before those judicial but yet moistening eyes, the great men whom he had
+once met there--Chase, Cushing, Martin, Livingston, and Marshal himself;
+and while he remembered that they were 'gone, gone, all gone,' remembered
+also the eternal Justice that is never gone--the sight was sublime. It was
+not an old patrician of Rome, who had been Consul, Dictator, coming out of
+his honored retirement at the Senate's call, to stand in the Forum to levy
+new armies, marshal them to victory afresh, and gain thereby new laurels
+for his brow; but it was a plain citizen of America, who had held an
+office far greater than that of Consul, King, or Dictator, his hand
+reddened by no man's blood, expecting no honors, but coming in the name of
+justice, to plead for the slave, for the poor barbarian negro of Africa,
+for Cinque and Grabbo for their deeds comparing them to Harmodius and
+Aristogeiton, whose classic memory made each bosom thrill. That was worth
+all his honors--it was worth while to live fourscore years for that."
+[Footnote: Theodore Parker.]
+
+This effort of Mr. Adams was crowned with complete success. The Supreme
+Court decided that the Africans were entitled to their freedom, and
+ordered them to be liberated. In due time they were enabled, by the
+assistance of the charitable, to sail for Africa, and take with them many
+of the implements of civilized life. They arrived in safety at Sierre
+Leone, and were allowed once more to mingle with their friends, and enjoy
+God's gift of freedom, in a Pagan land--having fortunately escaped from a
+cruel and life-long bondage, in the midst of a Christian people.
+
+In reply to a letter requesting Mr. Adams to write out his argument in
+this case, he concludes as follows: "I shall endeavor, as you desire, to
+write out, in full extent, my argument before the Court, in which all this
+was noticed and commented upon. If it has no other effect, I hope it will
+at least have that of admonishing the free people of this Union to keep
+perpetually watchful eyes upon every act of their executive
+administration, having any relation to the subject of slavery."
+
+In availing the country of the benefit of the "Smithsonian Bequest," and
+in founding the "Smithsonian Institute" at Washington, Mr. Adams took an
+active part. He repeatedly called the attention of Congress to the
+subject, until he succeeded in causing a bill to be passed providing for
+the establishment of the Institute. He was appointed one of the Regents of
+the Institute, which office he held until his death.
+
+In the summer of 1843, Mr. Adams visited Lebanon Springs, N. Y., for the
+benefit of his health, which had become somewhat impaired, and also the
+health of a cherished member of his family. He designed to devote only
+four or five days to this journey; but he was so highly pleased with the
+small portion of the State of New York he saw at Lebanon Springs, that he
+was induced to proceed further. He visited Saratoga, Lake Georgia, Lower
+Canada, Montreal and Quebec. Returning, he ascended the St. Lawrence and
+the Lakes as far as Niagara Falls and Buffalo, and by the way of
+Rochester, Auburn, Utica and Albany, sought his home in Quincy with health
+greatly improved.
+
+Although Mr. Adams had many bitter enemies--made so by his fearless
+independence, and the stern integrity with which he discharged the public
+duties entrusted to him--yet in the hearts of the people he ever occupied
+the highest position. They not only respected and admired the politician,
+the statesman, but they venerated the MAN! they loved him for his purity,
+his philanthropy, his disinterested patriotism, his devotion to freedom
+and human rights. All this was manifested during his tour through New
+York. It was marked in its whole extent by demonstrations of the highest
+attention and respect from people of all parties. Public greetings,
+processions, celebrations, met him and accompanied him at every step of
+his journey. Never since the visit of La Fayette, had such an anxious
+desire to honor a great and good man been manifested by the entire mass of
+the people. His progress was one continued triumphal procession. "I may
+say," exclaimed Mr. Adams, near the close of his tour, "without being
+charged with pride or vanity, I have come not alone, for the whole people
+of the State of New York have been my companions!"
+
+At Buffalo he was received with every possible demonstration of respect.
+The national ensign was streaming from an hundred masts, and the wharves,
+and the decks and rigging of the vessels, were crowded by thousands
+anxious to catch a glimpse of the renowned statesman and patriot, who was
+greeted by repeated cheers. Hon. Millard Fillmore addressed him with
+great eloquence. The following is the conclusion of his speech:--
+
+"You see around you, sir, no political partisans seeking to promote some
+sinister purpose; but you see here assembled the people of our infant
+city, without distinction of party, sex, age, or condition--all, all
+anxiously vieing with each other to show their respect and esteem for
+your public services and private worth. Here are gathered, in this vast
+multitude of what must appear to you strange faces, thousands whose hearts
+have vibrated to the chord of sympathy which your written speeches have
+touched. Here is reflecting age, and ardent youth, and lisping childhood,
+to all of whom your venerated name is as dear as household words all
+anxious to feast their eyes by a sight of that extraordinary and venerable
+man, of whom they have heard, and read, and thought so much--all anxious
+to hear the voice of that 'old man eloquent,' on whose lips wisdom has
+distilled her choicest nectar. Here, sir, you see them all, and read in
+their eager and joy-gladdened countenances, and brightly-beaming eyes, a
+welcome--a thrice-told, heart-felt, soul-stirring welcome to 'the man whom
+they delight to honor.'"
+
+Mr. Adams responded to this speech in a strain of most interesting
+remarks. He commenced as follows:--
+
+"I must request your indulgence for a moment's pause to take breath. If
+you inquire why I ask this indulgence, it is because I am so overpowered
+by the eloquence of my friend, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and
+Means, (whom I have been so long accustomed to refer to in that capacity,
+that, with your permission, I will continue so to denominate him now,)
+that I have no words left to answer him. For so liberal has he been in
+bestowing that eloquence upon me which he himself possesses in so eminent
+a degree, that while he was ascribing to me talents so far above my own
+consciousness in that regard, I was all the time imploring the god of
+eloquence to give me, at least at this moment, a few words to justify him
+before you in making that splendid panegyric which he has been pleased to
+bestow upon me; and that the flattering picture which he has presented to
+you, may not immediately be defaced before your eyes by what you should
+hear from me. * * * * * *
+
+In concluding his remarks he said:--"Of your attachment to moral principle
+I have this day had another and pleasing proof in the dinner of which I
+have partaken in the steamer, in which, by your kindness, I have been
+conveyed to this place. It was a sumptuous dinner, but at which temperance
+was the presiding power. I congratulate you on the evidence there
+exhibited of your attachment to moral principle, in your co-operation in
+that great movement which is promoting the happiness and elevation of man
+in every quarter of the globe.
+
+"And here you will permit me to allude to an incident which has occurred
+in my recent visit to Canada, in which I perceived the cooperation of the
+people of that Province in the same great moral reformation. While at
+Quebec, I visited the falls of Montmorenci, a cataract which, but for
+yours, would be among the greatest wonders of nature. In going to it, I
+passed through the parish of Beauport, and there, by the side of the way,
+I saw a column with an inscription upon its pedestal, which I had the
+curiosity to stop and read. It was erected by the people of Beauport in
+gratitude to the Virgin, for her goodness in promoting the cause of
+temperance in that parish. Perhaps I do not sufficiently sympathize with
+the people of Beauport in attributing to the Virgin so direct an influence
+upon this moral reform; but in the spirit with which they erected that
+monument I do most cordially sympathize with them. For, under whatever
+influence the cause may be promoted, the cause itself can never fail to
+make its votaries wiser and better men. I cannot make a speech. My heart
+is too full, and my voice too feeble. Farewell! And with that farewell;
+may the blessings of heaven be upon you throughout your lives!"
+
+Mr. Adams was greatly delighted with his visit to Niagara Falls. A
+letter-writer thus describes it:--
+
+"Mr. Adams seems incapable of fatigue, either physical or mental. After a
+drive in the morning to Lewiston, he stopped, on his return to the Falls,
+at the whirlpool. The descent to the water's edge, which is not often
+made, is, as you will remember, all but vertical, down a steep of some
+three hundred and sixty feet. One of the party was about going down, when
+Mr. Adams remarked that he would accompany him. Gen. Porter and the other
+gentlemen present remonstrated, and told him it was a very severe
+undertaking for a young and hearty man, and that he would find it, in such
+a hot day, quite impracticable. He seemed, however, to know his
+capacities; and this old man, verging on four score years, not only made
+the descent, but clambered over almost impracticable rocks along the
+margin of the river, to obtain the various views presented at different
+points. The return was not easy, but he was quite adequate to the labor;
+and after resting a few minutes at the summit, resumed his ride, full of
+spirits and of animated and instructive conversation. After dinner, he
+crossed over to Goat Island, and beheld the cataract from the various
+points, and continued his explorations until all was obscured by darkness.
+He seemed greatly impressed by the wonderful contrast presented by the
+scene of rage and repose--of the wild and furious dashing of the mighty
+river down the rapids, with its mad plunge over the precipice--and the
+sullen stillness of the abyss of waters below. I wish I could repeat to
+you his striking conversation during these rambles, replete with brilliant
+classical allusions, historical illustrations, and the most minute, and as
+it seemed to me, universal information. * * * * * * I sincerely concur
+with the worthy captain of one of our steamboats, who said to me the other
+day,--'Oh, that we could take the engine out of the old "Adams," and put
+it into a new hull!'"
+
+During his visit at the Falls, Mr. Adams, on a Sabbath morning,
+accompanied by Gen. Porter, visited the remnant of the Tuscarora Indians,
+and attended divine service in their midst. At the conclusion of the
+sermon, Mr. Adams made a brief address to the Indians, which is thus
+described by the letter-writer alluded to above:--
+
+"Mr. Adams alluded to his advanced age, and said this was the first time
+he had ever looked upon their beautiful fields and forests--that he was
+truly happy to meet them there and join with them in the worship of our
+common Parent--reminded them that in years past he had addressed them from
+the position which he then occupied, in language, at once that of his
+station and his heart, as 'his children'--and that now, as a private
+citizen, he hailed them in terms of equal warmth and endearment, as his
+'brethren and sisters.' He alluded, with a simple eloquence which seemed
+to move the Indians much, to the equal care and love with which God
+regards all his children, whether savage or civilized, and to the common
+destiny which awaits them hereafter, however various their lot here. He
+touched briefly and forcibly on the topics of the sermon which they had
+heard, and concluded with a beautiful and touching benediction upon them."
+
+At Rochester immense multitudes assembled to receive Mr. Adams. He was
+welcomed in an eloquent address from the Mayor of the city. The following
+are a few extracts from the reply of Mr. Adams:--
+
+"Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens:--I fear you expect from me a speech. If it
+were in my power, oppressed as I am with mingled astonishment and
+gratitude at what I have experienced and now see of your kindness, to make
+a speech, I would gratify you with one adorned with all the chaste yet
+simple eloquence which are combined in the address to which you have just
+listened from your worthy Mayor. But it is not in my power. You may
+probably think there is some affectation on my part, in pretending
+inability to address you, knowing as many of you do, that I have often
+addressed assemblies like this. But I hope for greater indulgence from you
+than this. I trust you will consider that I have seen and spoken to
+multitudes like that now before me, but that these multitudes had frowning
+faces. Those I could meet, and to those I could speak. But to you, whose
+every face is expressive of generous affection--to you, in whose every
+countenance I see kindness and friendship--I cannot speak. It is too much
+for me. It overcomes my powers of speech. It is a new scene to me.
+
+* * * * * *
+
+"Amongst the sentiments which I have expressed, and the observations which
+I have made during my brief tour through this portion of your State, it
+was impossible for me to forego a constant comparison with what New York
+was in other days, and what it is now. I first set my feet upon the soil
+of the now Empire State, in 1785. I then visited the city of New York,--at
+that time a town of 18,000 inhabitants. I tarried, while in that city, at
+the house of John Jay--a man whom I name, and whom all will remember, as
+one of the most illustrious of the distinguished patriots who carried our
+beloved country through the dark period of the Revolution. Mr. Jay, the
+Secretary of Foreign Affairs, under the Congress of the Federation, was
+laying the foundation of a house in Broadway, but which was separated by
+the distance of a quarter of a mile from any other dwelling. At that time,
+being eighteen years of age, I received an invitation to visit western New
+York; and I have regretted often, but never more than now, that I had not
+accepted that invitation. Oh! what would I not have given to have seen
+this part of this great State then, that I might be able to contrast it
+with what it now is. * * * * *
+
+"It has seemed to me as if in this region the God of nature intended to
+make a more sublime display of his power, than in any other portion of the
+world. He has done so in physical nature--in the majestic cataract, whose
+sound you can almost hear--in forest and in field--in the mind of man
+among you, In what has been accomplished to make your city what it is, the
+aged have done the most. The middle aged may say we will improve upon what
+has been done; and the young, we shall accomplish still more than our
+fathers. That, fellow-citizens, was the boast in the ancient Spartan
+procession--a procession which was divided into three classes--the old,
+the middle-aged, and the young. They had a saying which each class
+repeated in turn. The aged said--
+
+  'We have been, in days of old,
+   Wise and gentle, brave and bold.'
+
+The middle-aged said--
+
+  'We, in turn, your place supply;
+   Who doubts it, let them come and try.'
+
+And the boys said--
+
+  'Hereafter, at our country's call,
+   We promise to surpass you all.'
+
+And so it will be with you--each in your order."
+
+At Auburn every possible token of respect was paid to the venerable
+statesman. A committee consisting of ex-Gov. Seward, Judge Conklin,
+Judge Miller, Luman Sherwood, P. H. Perry, S. A. Goodwin, James C. Wood,
+and J. L. Doty, Esqs., proceeded to Canandaigua to meet Mr. Adams. At
+half past nine o'clock in the evening, Mr. Adams, accompanied by the
+committee, arrived in Auburn. He was received by a torch-light procession,
+composed of the Auburn Guards, the Firemen, and an immense concourse of
+citizens, and conducted to the mansion of Gov. Seward, where he thus
+briefly addressed the people:--
+
+"Fellow-citizens:--Notwithstanding the glow with which these brilliant
+torch-lights illuminate my welcome among you, I can only acknowledge your
+kindness, on this occasion, by assuring you that to-morrow morning, by the
+light of the blessed sun, I hope to take everyone of you by the hand, and
+express feelings too strong for immediate utterance."
+
+On the following morning at six o'clock, Mr. Adams visited the State
+Prison, and made many inquiries concerning the discipline of the prison,
+and its success in the prevention of crime and reformation of offenders.
+At 9 o'clock he met the citizens in the First Presbyterian church, where
+he was addressed by Gov. Seward, as follows:--
+
+"SIR:--I am charged with the very honorable and most agreeable duty, of
+expressing to you the reverence and affectionate esteem of my
+fellow-citizens, assembled in your presence.
+
+"A change has come over the spirit of your journey, since your steps have
+turned towards your ancestral sea-side home. An excursion to invigorate
+health impaired by labors, too arduous for age, in the public councils,
+and expected to be quiet and contemplative, has become one of fatigue and
+excitement. Rumors of your advance escape before you, and a happy and
+grateful community rise up in their clustering cities, towns, and
+villages, impede your way with demonstrations of respect and kindness, and
+convert your unpretending journey into a triumphal progress. Such honors
+frequently attend public functionaries, and such an one may sometimes find
+it difficult to determine how much of the homage he receives is paid to
+his own worth, how much proceeds from the habitual reverence of good
+republican citizens to constituted elective authority, and how much from
+the spirit of venal adulation.
+
+"You, sir, labor under no such embarrassment. The office you hold, though
+honorable, is purely legislative, and such as we can bestow by our
+immediate suffrage on one of ourselves. You conferred personal benefits
+sparingly when you held the patronage of the nation. That patronage you
+have relinquished, and can never regain. Your hands will be uplifted
+often, during your remaining days, to invoke blessings on your country,
+but never again to distribute honors or reward among your countrymen. The
+homage paid you, dear sir, is sincere, for it has its sources in the just
+sentiments and irrepressible affections of a free people, their love of
+truth, their admiration of wisdom, their reverence for virtue, and their
+gratitude for beneficence.
+
+"Nor need you fear that enthusiasm exaggerates your title to the public
+regard. Your fellow-citizens, in spite of political prudence, could not
+avoid honoring you on grounds altogether irrespective of personal merit.
+John Adams, who has gone to receive the reward of the just, was one of the
+most efficient and illustrious founders of this Empire, and afterwards its
+Chief Ruler. The son of such a father would, in any other age, and even in
+this age, in any other country than this, have been entitled, by birth
+alone, to a sceptre. We not merely deny hereditary claims to civil trust,
+but regard even hereditary distinction with jealousy. And this
+circumstance enhances justly the estimate of your worth. For when before
+has it happened that in such a condition of society the son has, by mere
+civic achievement, attained the eminence of such a sire, and effaced
+remembrance of birth by justly acquired renown?
+
+"The hand we now so eagerly grasp, was pressed in confidence and
+friendship by the Father of our Country. The wreath we place on your
+honored brow, received its earliest leaves from the hand of Washington. We
+cannot expect, with the agency of free and universal suffrage, to be
+always governed by the wise and the good. But surely your predecessors in
+the Chief Magistracy, were men such as never before successively wielded
+power in any State. They differed in policy as they must, and yet,
+throughout their several dynasties, without any sacrifice of personal
+independence, and while passing from immature youth to ripened age, you
+were counsellor and minister to them all. We seem therefore, in this
+interview with you, to come into the presence of our departed chiefs; the
+majestic shade of Washington looks down upon us; we hear the bold and
+manly eloquence of the elder Adams; and we listen to the voices of the
+philosophic and sagacious Jefferson, the refined and modest Madison, and
+the generous and faithful Monroe.
+
+"A life of such eminent patriotism and fidelity found its proper reward in
+your elevation to the eminence from which you had justly derived so many
+honors. Although your administration of the government is yet too recent
+for impartial history, or unbounded eulogy, our grateful remembrance of it
+is evinced by the congratulations you now receive from your
+fellow-citizens.
+
+"But your claims to the veneration of your countrymen do not end here.
+Your predecessors descended from the Chief Magistracy to enjoy, in repose
+and tranquillity, honors even greater than those which belonged to that
+eminent station. It was reserved for you to illustrate the important
+truths, that offices and trusts are not the end of public service, but are
+merely incidents in the life of the true American citizen; that duties
+remain when the highest trust is resigned; and that there is scope for a
+pure and benevolent ambition beyond even the Presidency of the United
+States of America.
+
+"You have devoted the energies of a mind unperverted, the learning and
+experience acquired through more than sixty years, and even the influence
+and fame derived from your high career of public service, to the great
+cause of universal liberty. The praises we bestow are already echoed back
+to us by voices which come rich and full across the Atlantic, hailing you
+as the indefatigable champion of humanity--not the humanity which embraces
+a single race or clime, but that humanity which regards the whole family
+of MAN. Such salutations as these cannot be mistaken. They come not from
+your contemporaries, for they are gone--you are not of this generation,
+but of the PAST, spared to hear the voice of POSTERITY. The greetings you
+receive come up from the dark and uncertain FUTURE. They are the
+whisperings of posthumous FAME--fame which impatiently awaits your
+departure, and which, spreading wider and growing more and more distinct,
+will award to JOHN QUINCY ADAMS a name to live with that of WASHINGTON!"
+
+The audience expressed their sympathy with this address by long and
+enthusiastic cheering. When order was restored, Mr. Adams rose, evidently
+under great and unaffected embarrassment.
+
+He replied to the speech in an address of about half an hour, during which
+the attention of his audience was riveted upon the speaker, with intense
+interest and affection. He declared the embarrassment he felt in speaking.
+He was sensible that his fellow-citizens had laid aside all partizan
+feelings in coming up to greet him. He desired to speak what would not
+wound the feelings of anyone. He was grateful, deeply grateful, to them
+all. But on what subject of public interest could a public man speak, that
+would find harmony among an intelligent, thinking people? There were such
+subjects, but he could not speak of them.
+
+The people of Western New York had always been eminently just and generous
+to him, and had recently proved their kindness on various occasions, by
+inviting him to address the State Agricultural Society on agriculture. But
+his life had been spent in the closet, in diplomacy, or in the cabinet;
+and he had not learned the practice, or even the theory of agriculture.
+After what he had seen of the harvests of Western New York, bursting with
+food for the sustenance of man, for him to address the people of such a
+district on agriculture, would be as absurd as the vanity of the
+rhetorician who went to Carthage to instruct Hannibal in the art of war.
+He had been solicited to address the young. In his life time he had been
+an instructor of youth, and, strange as from his present display they
+might think it, he had instructed them in the art of eloquence. And there
+was no more honorable office on earth than instructing the young. But the
+schools and seminaries had passed him, while he was engaged in other
+pursuits; and for him now to attempt to instruct the young of this
+generation, would evince only the garrulousness of age.
+
+He had been invited to discourse on internal improvement; but that was a
+subject he feared to touch. On one point, however, all men agreed. All
+were in favor of internal improvement. But there was a balance between the
+reasonable sacrifices of this generation, and the burden it had a right to
+cast upon posterity, and every individual might justly claim to hold his
+balance for himself. One thing, however, he was sure he might assume with
+safety. In looking over the State of New York, upon its canals and
+railroads, which brought the borders of the State into contiguity, and its
+citizens in every part into communion with each other, he was sure that
+all rejoiced, and might well glory in what had been accomplished.
+
+Mr. A. said he had read and endeavored to inform himself concerning prison
+discipline, a subject deeply interesting to the peace, good order, and
+welfare of society; but after his examination of the penitentiary here, he
+was satisfied that he was yet a learner, instead of being able to give
+instruction on that important subject.
+
+He had been asked to enlist in the growing army of temperance, and
+discourse on that cause, so deeply cherished by every well wisher of our
+country. And he would cheerfully speak; but other and more devoted men had
+occupied the field, and what was left for him to say on temperance? In
+passing through Catholic Lower Canada he saw a column erected to the
+Virgin Mary, in gratitude for her promotion of the temperance cause. If
+indeed the blessed Virgin did lend her aid to that great work, it would
+almost win him to worship at her shrine, although he belonged to that
+class of people who rejected the invocation of saints.
+
+He felt, therefore, that he had no subject on which to address them, but
+himself and his own public life. The experience of an old man, related by
+himself, would, he feared, be more irksome than profitable.
+
+"What, then, am I to say? I am summoned here to speak, and to reply to
+what has been said to me by my respected friend, your late Chief
+Magistrate. And what is the theme he has given me? It is myself. And what
+can I say on such a subject? To know that he entertains, or that you
+entertain for me the sentiments he has expressed, absolutely overpowers
+me. I cannot go on. The only answer I can make, is a declaration, that
+during my public service, now protracted to nearly the age of eighty, I
+have endeavored to serve my country honestly and faithfully. How
+imperfectly I have done this, none seem so sensible as myself. I must
+stop. I can only repeat thanks, thanks, thanks to you, one and all, and
+implore the blessings of God upon you and your children."
+
+At the conclusion of this reply, Mr. Adams was introduced to a large
+number of the ladies and gentlemen assembled in the church. He then
+returned to the American Hotel, where he remained an hour, receiving the
+visits of the citizens of the adjoining towns. At 11 o'clock the Auburn
+Guards escorted Mr. Adams and the committee, followed by a large
+procession, to the car-house. Accompanied by Gov. Seward, Judge Miller,
+Hon. Christopher Morgan, the committee, Auburn Guards, and a number of the
+citizens of Auburn, he was conveyed in an extra train of cars, in an hour
+and five minutes, to Syracuse.
+
+At Syracuse, at Utica, at Albany, the same spontaneous outgushing
+manifestations of respect and affection met him that had hitherto attended
+his journey in every populous place through which he passed. In his reply
+to the address of Mr. Barnard, at Albany, he concluded in the following
+words:--
+
+"Lingering as I am on the stage of public life, and, as many of you may
+think, lingering beyond the period when nature calls for repose--while I
+remain in the station which I now occupy in the Congress of the United
+States, if you, my hearers, as an assembly, or if anyone among you, as an
+individual, have any object or purpose to promote, or any end to secure
+that he believes can in any way advance his interests or increase his
+happiness, then, in the name of God, I ask you to send your petitions to
+me! (Tremendous cheering.) I hope this is not trespassing too far on
+politics. (Laughter, and cheers.) I unhesitatingly promise you, one and
+all, that if I can in any way serve you in that station, I will do it most
+cheerfully; regarding it as the choicest blessing of God, if I shall thus
+be enabled to make some just return for the kind attentions which you have
+this day bestowed upon me."
+
+In his route homeward, Mr. Adams was received and entertained in a very
+handsome manner by the people of Pittsfield, Mass. He was addressed by
+Hon. George N. Briggs, who alluded, in eloquent terms, to his long and
+distinguished public services. Mr. Adams, in reply, spoke of the scenes
+amidst which he had passed his early youth, and of the influence which
+they exerted in forming his character and shaping his purposes. "In 1775,"
+said he, "the minute men from a hundred towns in the province were
+marching, at a moment's warning, to the scene of opening war. Many of them
+called at my father's house in Quincy, and received the hospitality of
+John Adams. All were lodged in the house which the house would contain;
+others in the barns, and wherever they could find a place. There were then
+in my father's kitchen some dozen or two of pewter spoons; and I well
+recollect going into the kitchen and seeing some of the men engaged in
+running those spoons into bullets for the use of the troops! Do you
+wonder," said he, "that a boy of seven years of age, who witnessed this
+scene, should be a patriot?"
+
+In the fall of the same year, Mr. Adams received an invitation from the
+Cincinnati Astronomical Society, to visit that city, and assist in the
+ceremony of laying the corner stone of an observatory, to be erected on an
+eminence called Mount Ida. The invitation was accepted. On his journey to
+Cincinnati, the same demonstrations of respect, the same eagerness to
+honor the aged patriarch were manifested in the various cities and towns
+through which he passed, as on his summer tour.
+
+324   LIFE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+The ceremony of laying the corner stone took place on the 9th of November,
+1843. Mr. Adams delivered an address on the occasion, replete with
+eloquence, wisdom, philosophy, and religion. The following beautiful
+extract will afford a specimen:--
+
+"The various difficult, and, in many respects, opposite motives which have
+impelled mankind to the study of the stars, have had a singular effect in
+complicating and confounding the recommendation of the science. Religion,
+idolatry, superstition, curiosity, the thirst for knowledge, the passion
+for penetrating the secrets of nature, the warfare of the huntsman by
+night and by day against the beast of the forest and of the field, the
+meditations of the shepherd in the custody and wanderings of his flocks,
+the influence of the revolving seasons of the year, and the successive
+garniture of the firmament upon the labors of the husbandman, upon the
+seed time and the harvest, the blooming of flowers, the ripening of the
+vintage, the polar pilot of the navigator, and the mysterious magnet of
+the mariner--all, in harmonious action, stimulate the child of earth and
+of heaven to interrogate the dazzling splendors of the sky, to reveal to
+him the laws of their own existence.
+
+"He has his own comforts, his own happiness, his own existence, identified
+with theirs. He sees the Creator in creation, and calls upon creation to
+declare the glory of the Creator. When Pythagoras, the philosopher of the
+Grecian schools, conceived that more than earthly idea of 'the music of
+the spheres'--when the great dramatist of nature could inspire the lips of
+his lover on the moonlight green with the beloved of his soul, to say to
+her:--
+
+  'Sit, Jessica.--Look how the floor of Heaven
+   Is thick inlaid with pattens of bright gold!
+   There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest,
+   But in his motion like an angel sings,
+   Still choiring to the young eyed cherubim!'
+
+"Oh, who is the one with a heart, but almost wishes to cast off this muddy
+vesture of decay, to be admitted to the joy of listening to the celestial
+harmony!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+MR. ADAMS' LAST APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC AT BOSTON--HIS HEALTH--LECTURES ON
+HIS JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON--REMOTE CAUSE OF HIS DECEASE--STRUCK WITH
+PARALYSIS--LEAVES QUINCY FOR WASHINGTON FOR THE LAST TIME--HIS FINAL
+SICKNESS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES--HIS DEATH--THE FUNERAL AT
+WASHINGTON--REMOVAL OF THE BODY TO QUINCY--ITS INTERMENT.
+
+The last time Mr. Adams appeared in public in Boston, he presided at a
+meeting of the citizens of that city, in Faneuil Hall. "A man had been
+kidnapped in Boston--kidnapped at noon-day, 'on the high road between
+Faneuil Hall and old Quincy,' and carried  off to be a slave! New England
+hands had seized their brother, sold him into bondage forever, and his
+children after him. A meeting was called to talk the matter over, in a
+plain way, and look in one another's faces. Who was fit to preside in such
+a case? That old man sat in the chair in Faneuil Hall. Above him was the
+image of his father and his own; around him were Hancock and the other
+Adams, and Washington, greatest of all. Before him were the men and women
+of Boston, met to consider the wrongs done to a miserable negro slave. The
+roof of the old Cradle of Liberty spanned over them all. Forty years
+before, a young man and a Senator, he had taken the chair at a meeting
+called to consult on the wrong done to American seamen, violently
+impressed by the British from an American ship of war--the unlucky
+Chesapeake. Now an old man, clothed with half a century of honors, he sits
+in the same Hall, to preside over a meeting to consider the outrage done
+to a single slave. One was the first meeting of citizens he ever presided
+over; the other was the last: both for the same object--the defence of
+the eternal right!" [Footnote: Theodore Parker.]
+
+Few men retain the health and vigor with which Mr. Adams was blessed in
+extreme old age. When most others are decrepit and helpless, he was in the
+enjoyment of meridian strength and energy, both of body and mind, and
+could endure labors which would prostrate many in the prime of manhood. An
+instance of his powers of endurance is furnished in his journey to
+Washington, to attend the opening of Congress, when in the 74th year of
+his age. On Monday morning he left Boston, and the same evening delivered
+a lecture before the Young Men's Institute, in Hartford, Conn. The next
+day he proceeded to New Haven, and in the evening lectured before a
+similar Institute in that city. Wednesday he pursued his journey to New
+York, and in the evening lectured before the New York Lyceum, in the
+Broadway Tabernacle. Thursday evening he delivered an address before an
+association in Brooklyn; and on Friday evening delivered a second lecture
+before the New York Lyceum. Here were labors which would seriously tax the
+constitution of vigorous youth; and yet Mr. Adams performed them with much
+comparative ease.
+
+His great longevity, and his general good health, must be attributed, in
+no small degree, to his abstemious and temperate habits, early rising, and
+active exercise. He took pleasure in athletic amusements, and was
+exceedingly fond of walking. During his summer residence in Quincy, he has
+been known to walk to his son's residence in Boston (seven miles,) before
+breakfast. "While President of the United States, he was probably the
+first man up in Washington, lighted his own fire, and was hard at work in
+his library, while sleep yet held in its obliviousness the great mass of
+his fellow-citizens." He was an expert swimmer, and was in the constant
+habit of bathing, whenever circumstances would permit. Not unfrequently
+the first beams of the rising sun, as they fell upon the beautiful
+Potomac, would find Mr. Adams buffeting its waves with all the
+sportiveness and dexterity of boyhood, while a single attendant watched
+upon the shore. When in the Presidency, he sometimes made a journey from
+Washington to Quincy on horseback, as a simple citizen, accompanied only
+by a servant.
+
+More than four score years had sprinkled their frosts upon his brow, and
+still he was in the midst of his usefulness. Promptly at his post in the
+Hall of Representatives stood the veteran sentinel, watching vigilantly
+over the interests of his country. With an eye undimmed by age, a quick
+ear, a ready hand, an intellect unimpaired, he guarded the citadel of
+liberty, ever on the alert to detect, and mighty to repel, the approach of
+the foe, however covert or however open his attacks. Never did the Union,
+never did freedom, the world, more need his services than now. A large
+territory, of sufficient extent to form several States, had been blighted
+by slavery, and annexed to the United Sates. A sanguinary and expensive
+war, growing out of this strengthening of the slave power, had just
+terminated, adding to the Union still larger territories--now free soil
+indeed, but furnishing a field for renewed battles between slavery and
+liberty. New revolutions were about to break forth in Europe, to convulse
+the Eastern Hemisphere, and cause old thrones to totter and fall!
+
+How momentous the era! How deeply fraught with the prosperity of the
+American Republic--with the progress of man--the freedom of nations--the
+happiness of succeeding generations! How could he, who for years had
+prominently and nobly stood forth, as the leader of the hosts contending
+for the rights and the liberties of humanity, be spared from his post at
+such a juncture? Who could put on his armor?--who wield his weapons?--who
+"lead a forlorn hope," or mount a deadly breach in battles which might yet
+be waged between the sons of freedom and the propagators of slavery? But
+the loss was to be experienced. A wise and good Providence had so ordered.
+The sands of his life had run out. A voice from on high called him away
+from earth's stormy struggles, to bright and peaceful scenes in the spirit
+land. He could no longer tarry. Death found the faithful veteran at his
+post, with his harness on. How applicable the words of Scott, on the
+departure of Pitt:--
+
+  "Hadst thou but lived, though stripp'd of power,
+   A watchman on the lonely tower,
+   Thy thrilling trump had roused the land,
+   When fraud or danger were at hand;
+   By thee, as by the beacon-light,
+   Our pilots had kept course aright;
+   As some proud column, though alone,
+   Thy strength had propp'd the tottering throne.
+   Now is the stately column broke,
+   The beacon-light is quenched in smoke,
+   The trumpet's silver sound is still,
+   The warder silent on the hill!
+   O think how, to his latest day,
+   When death, just hovering, claimed his prey,
+   With Palinure's unaltered mood,
+   Firm at his dangerous post he stood;
+   Each call for needful rest repell'd,
+   With dying hand the rudder held,
+   Till, in his fall, with fateful sway,
+   The steerage of the realm gave way."
+
+It has been supposed by some that the remote cause of Mr. Adams's death
+was a severe injury he received by a fall in the House of Representatives,
+in June, 1840. The accident is thus described by an eye witness:--
+
+"It had been a very warm day, and the debates had partaken of
+extraordinary excitement, when, a few moments before sunset, the House
+adjourned, and most of the members had sought relief from an oppressive
+atmosphere, in the arbors and recesses of the adjoining Congressional
+gardens.
+
+"At that time I held a subordinate clerkship in the House, which usually
+confined me, the larger portion of the day not devoted to debate, to one
+of the committee rooms; whilst the balance of the day I occupied as a
+reporter.
+
+"Mr. Adams was always the first man in the House, and the last man out of
+it; and, as I usually detained myself an hour or more after adjournment,
+in writing up my notes, I often came in contact with him. He was pleased
+to call at my desk very often, before he went home, and indulge in some
+incidental, unimportant conversation. On the day referred to, just as the
+sun was setting, and was throwing his last rays through the murky hall, I
+looked up, and saw Mr. Adams approaching. He had almost reached my desk,
+and had uplifted his hand in friendly salutation, when he pitched
+headlong, some six or eight feet, and struck his head against the sharp
+corner of an iron rail that defended one of the entrance aisles leading to
+the circle within the bar, inflicting a heavy contusion on his forehead,
+and rendering him insensible. I instantly leaped from my seat, took the
+prostrate sufferer in my arms, and found that he was in a state of utter
+stupor and insensibility. Looking around for aid, I had the good fortune
+to find that Col. James Munroe, of the New York delegation, had just
+returned to his desk to procure a paper he had forgotten, when, giving the
+alarm, he flew to the rescue, manifesting the deepest solicitude for the
+welfare of the venerable statesman. Follansbee, the doorkeeper, with two
+or more of his pages, came in next; and after we had applied a plentiful
+supply of cold water to the sufferer, he returned to consciousness, and
+requested that he might be taken to his residence. In less than five
+minutes, Mr. Moses H. Grinnell, Mr. George H. Profit, Mr. Ogden Hoffman,
+and Col. Christopher Williams, of Tennessee, were called in, a carriage
+was procured, and Mr. Adams was being conveyed to his residence in
+President Square, when, it being ascertained that his shoulder was
+dislocated, the carriage was stopped at the door of the private hotel of
+Col. Munroe, in Pennsylvania Avenue, between Eleventh and Twelfth
+streets; the suffering, but not complaining statesman, was taken out, and
+surgical aid instantly put in requisition. Doctor Sewall was sent for;
+when it was ascertained that the left shoulder-joint was out of the
+socket; and, though Mr. Adams must have suffered intensely, he complained
+not--did not utter a groan or a murmur.
+
+"More than an hour elapsed before the dislocated limb could be adjusted;
+and to effect which, his arm endured, in a concentrated and continued
+wrench or pull, many minutes at a time, the united strength of Messrs.
+Grinnell, Munroe, Profit, and Hoffman. Still Mr. Adams uttered not a
+murmur, though the great drops of sweat that rolled down his furrowed
+cheeks, or stood upon his brow, told but too well the physical agony he
+endured. As soon as his arm was adjusted, he insisted on being carried
+home, and his wishes were complied with.
+
+"The next morning I was at the capitol at a very early hour, attending to
+some writing. I thought of, and lamented the accident that had befallen
+Mr. Adams, and had already commenced writing an account of it to a
+correspondent. At that instant I withdrew my eyes from the paper on which
+I was writing, and saw Mr. Adams standing a foot or two from me, carefully
+examining the carpeting. 'Sir,' said he, 'I am looking for that place in
+the matting that last night tripped me. If it be not fastened down, it may
+kill some one.' And then he continued his search for the trick-string
+matting."
+
+Mr. Adams after this accident did not enjoy as sound health as in previous
+years, yet was more active and vigorous than the majority of those who
+attain to his age. But on the 20th of November, 1846, he experienced the
+first blow of the fatal disease which eventually terminated his existence.
+
+On the morning of that day, while sojourning at the residence of his son,
+in Boston, preparing to depart for Washington, he was walking out with a
+friend to visit a new Medical College, and was struck with paralysis by
+the way. This affliction confined him several weeks, when he obtained
+sufficient strength to proceed to Washington, and enter upon his duties in
+the House of Representatives. He viewed this attack as the touch of death.
+An interregnum of nearly four months occurs in his journal. The next entry
+is under the head of "Posthumous Memoir." After describing his recent
+sickness, he continues:--"From that hour I date my decease, and consider
+myself, for every useful purpose, to myself and fellow-creatures, dead;
+and hence I call this, and what I may hereafter write, a posthumous
+memoir."
+
+Although he was after this, regular in his attendance at the House of
+Representatives, yet he did not mingle as freely in debate as formerly. He
+passed the following summer, as usual, at his seat in Quincy. In November,
+he left his native town for Washington, to return no more in life!
+
+On Sunday, the 20th of February, 1848, he appeared in unusual health. In
+the forenoon he attended public worship at the capitol, and in the
+afternoon at St. John's church. At nine o'clock in the evening he retired
+with his wife to his library, where she read to him a sermon of Bishop
+Wilberforce, on Time--"hovering, as he was, on the verge of eternity!"
+This was the last night he passed beneath his own roof.
+
+Monday, the 21st, he rose at his usual very early hour, and engaged in his
+accustomed occupations with his pen. An extraordinary alacrity pervaded
+his movements, and the cheerful step with which he ascended the steps of
+the capitol was remarked by his attendants. He occupied a portion of the
+forenoon in composing a few stanzas of poetry, at the request of a friend,
+and had signed his name twice for members who desired to obtain his
+autograph.
+
+Mr. Chase had introduced a resolution of thanks to Generals Twiggs,
+Worth, Quitman, Pillow, Shields, Pearce, Cadwalader, and Smith, for
+their services in the Mexican war, and awarding them gold medals. Mr.
+Adams was in his seat, and voted on the two questions preliminary to
+ordering its engrossment, with an uncommonly emphatic tone of voice. About
+half past one o'clock, P. M., as the Speaker had risen to put another
+question to the House, the proceedings were suddenly interrupted by cries
+of "Stop!--stop!--Mr. Adams!" There was a quick movement towards the chair
+of Mr. Adams, by two or three members, and in a moment he was surrounded
+by a large number of Representatives, eagerly inquiring--"What's the
+matter?"--"Has he fainted?"--"Is he dead?" JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, while
+faithful at his post, and apparently about to rise to address the Speaker,
+had sunk into a state of unconsciousness! He had been struck a second time
+with paralysis. The scene was one of intense excitement. Pallor, anxiety,
+alarm, were depicted on every countenance. "Take him out,"--"Bring
+water,"--exclaimed several voices. He had been prevented from falling to
+the floor by a member from Ohio, whose seat was near his--Mr. Fisher--who
+received him in his arms. Immediately Mr. Grinnell, one of his colleagues
+from Massachusetts, was by his side, keeping off a press of anxious
+friends, and bathing his face with iced water.
+
+"He was immediately lifted into the area in front of the Clerk's table.
+The Speaker instantly suggested that some gentleman move an adjournment,
+which being promptly done, the House adjourned. A sofa was brought, and
+Mr. Adams, in a state of perfect helplessness, though not of entire
+insensibility, was gently laid upon it. The sofa was then taken up and
+borne out of the Hall into the Rotunda, where it was set down, and the
+members of both Houses, and strangers, who were fast crowding around, were
+with some difficulty repressed, and an open space cleared in its immediate
+vicinity; but a medical gentleman, a member of the House, (who was prompt,
+active, and self-possessed throughout the whole painful scene,) advised
+that he be removed to the door of the Rotunda opening on the east portico,
+where a fresh wind was blowing. This was done; but the air being chilly
+and loaded with vapor, the sofa was, at the suggestion of Mr. Winthrop,
+once more taken up and removed to the Speaker's apartment, the doors of
+which were forthwith closed to all but professional gentlemen and
+particular friends."
+
+The features of the dying patriarch were almost as rigid as though in
+death: but there was a serenity in his countenance which betokened an
+absence of pain. There were five physicians, members of the House,
+present, viz.:--Drs. Newell, Fries, Edwards, Jones of Georgia, and Lord.
+These gentlemen were unremitting in their attentions. Drs. Lindsley and
+Thomas, of the city, were also immediately called in. Under the advice of
+the medical gentlemen present, he was cupped, and mustard plasters were
+applied, which seemed to afford some relief. Reviving a little and
+recovering consciousness, Mr. Adams inquired for his wife. She was
+present, but in extreme illness, and suffering the most poignant sorrow.
+After a few moments' interval he relapsed again into unconsciousness. A
+correspondent of the New York Express describes as follows the progress of
+these melancholy events:--
+
+"Half past one o'clock.--Mr. Benton communicated to the Senate the notice
+of the sudden illness of Mr. Adams, and moved an adjournment of that body.
+
+"Quarter to two.--Mr. Adams has several physicians with him, but exhibits
+no signs of returning consciousness. The report is that he is sinking.
+
+"Two o'clock.--Mr. Giddings informs me that he shows signs of life. He
+has just now attempted to speak, but cannot articulate a word. Under
+medical advice he has submitted to leeching.
+
+"Half past two.--Mrs. Adams and his niece and nephew are with him, and Mr.
+A. is no worse. The reports, however, are quite contradictory, and many,
+despair of his recovery.
+
+"Three o'clock.--None but the physicians and the family are present, and
+the reports again become more and more doubtful. The physicians say that
+Mr. Adams may not live more than an hour, or he may live two or three
+days.
+
+"His right side is wholly paralyzed, and the left not under control, there
+being continually involuntary motions of the muscles. Everything which
+medical aid can do, has been done for his relief. Briefly, just now, by
+close attention, he seemed anxious to 'thank the officers of the House.'
+Then, again, he was heard to say--'This is the last of earth! I AM
+CONTENT!' These were the last words which fell from the lips of, 'the old
+man eloquent,' as his spirit plumed its pinions to soar to other worlds."
+
+Mr. Adams lay in the Speaker's room, in a state of apparent
+unconsciousness, through the 22d and 23d,--Congress, in the meantime,
+assembling in respectful silence, and immediately adjourning from day to
+day. The struggles of contending parties ceased--the strife for interest,
+place, power, was hushed to repose. Silence reigned through the halls of
+the capitol, save the cautious tread and whispered inquiry of anxious
+questioners. The soul of a sage, a patriot, a Christian, is preparing to
+depart from the world!--no sound is heard to ruffle its sweet serenity!--a
+calmness and peace, fitting the momentous occasion, prevail around!
+
+The elements of life and death continued their uncertain balance, until
+seven o'clock, on the evening of the 23d, when the spirit of JOHN QUINCY
+ADAMS bade adieu to earth forever, and winged its flight to God.
+
+  "Give forth thy chime, thou solemn bell,
+  Thou grave, unfold thy marble cell;
+   O earth! receive upon thy breast,
+   The weary traveller to his rest.
+
+  "O God! extend thy arms of love,
+   A spirit seeketh thee above!
+   Ye heav'nly palaces unclose,
+   Receive the weary to repose."
+
+The tidings of Mr. Adams' death flew on electrical wings to every portion
+of the Union. A statesman, a philanthropist, a father of the Republic, had
+fallen. A nation heard, and were dissolved in tears!
+
+In the history of American statesmen, none lived a life so long in the
+public service--none had trusts so numerous confided to their care--none
+died a death so glorious. Beneath the dome of the nation's capitol; in the
+midst of the field of his highest usefulness, where he had won fadeless
+laurels of renown; equipped with the armor in which he had fought so many
+battles for truth and freedom, he fell beneath the shaft of the king of
+terrors. And how bright, how enviable the reputation he left behind! As a
+man, pure, upright, benevolent, religious--his hand unstained by a drop of
+human blood; uncharged, unsuspected of crime, of premeditated wrong, of an
+immoral act, of an unchaste word--as a statesman, lofty and patriotic in
+all his purposes; devoted to the interests of the people; sacredly
+exercising all power entrusted to his keeping for the good of the public
+alone, unmindful of personal interest and aggrandizement; an enthusiastic
+lover of liberty; a faithful, fearless defender of the rights of man! The
+sun of his life in its lengthened course through the political heavens,
+was unobscured by a spot, undimmed by a cloud; and when, at the close of
+the long day, it sank beneath the horizon, the whole firmament glowed with
+the brilliancy of its reflected glories! Rulers, statesmen, legislators!
+study and emulate such a life--seek after a character so beloved, a death
+so honorable, a fame so immortal. Like him--
+
+  "So live, that when thy summons comes to join
+   The innumerable caravan, that moves
+   To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
+   His chamber in the silent halls of death,
+   Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
+   Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained, and soothed
+   By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
+   Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
+   About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."
+
+On the day succeeding Mr. Adams' death, when the two Houses of Congress
+met, the full attendance of members, and a crowded auditory, attested the
+deep desire felt by all to witness the proceedings which would take place
+in relation to the death of one who had long occupied so high a place in
+the councils of the Republic. As soon as the House of Representatives was
+called to order, the Speaker, (the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop of
+Massachusetts,) rose, and in a feeling manner addressed the House as
+follows:--
+
+"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives of the United States: It has
+been thought fit that the Chair should announce officially to the House,
+an event already known to the members individually, and which has filled
+all our hearts with sadness. A seat on this floor has been vacated, toward
+which all eyes have been accustomed to turn with no common interest. A
+voice has been hushed forever in this Hall, to which all ears have been
+wont to listen with profound reverence. A venerable form has faded from
+our sight, around which we have daily clustered with an affectionate
+regard. A name has been stricken from the roll of the living statesmen of
+our land, which has been associated, for more than half a century, with
+the highest civil service, and the loftiest civil renown.
+
+"On Monday, the 21st instant, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS sunk in his seat, in
+presence of us all, by a sudden illness, from which he never recovered;
+and he died, in the Speaker's room, at a quarter past seven o'clock last
+evening, with the officers of the House and the delegation of his own
+Massachusetts around him.
+
+"Whatever advanced age, long experience, great ability, vast learning,
+accumulated public honors, a spotless private character, and a firm
+religious faith, could do, to render anyone an object of interest,
+respect, and admiration, they had done for this distinguished person; and
+interest, respect, and admiration, are but feeble terms to express the
+feelings with which the members of this House and the people of the
+country have long regarded him.
+
+"After a life of eighty years, devoted from its earliest maturity to the
+public service, he has at length gone to his rest. He has been privileged
+to die at his post; to fall while in the discharge of his duties; to
+expire beneath the roof of the capitol; and to have his last scene
+associated forever, in history, with the birthday of that illustrious
+patriot, whose just discernment brought him first into the service of his
+country.
+
+"The close of such a life, under such circumstances, is not an event for
+unmingled emotions. We cannot find it in our hearts to regret, that he has
+died as he has died. He himself could have desired no other end. 'This is
+the end of earth,' were his last words, uttered on the day on which he
+fell. But we might also hear him exclaiming, as he left us--in a language
+hardly less familiar to him than his native tongue--'Hoc est, nimirum,
+magis feliciter de vita migrare, quam mori.'
+
+"It is for others to suggest what honors shall be paid to his memory. No
+acts of ours are necessary to his fame. But it may be due to ourselves and
+to the country, that the national sense of his character and services
+should be fitly commemorated."
+
+Mr. Holmes of South Carolina arose and addressed the House in most
+eloquent strains. The following are extracts from his eulogy:--
+
+"The mingled tones of sorrow, like the voice of many waters, have come
+unto us from a sister State--Massachusetts weeping for her honored son.
+The State I have the honor in part to represent once endured, with yours,
+a common suffering, battled for a common cause, and rejoiced in a common
+triumph. Surely, then, it is meet that in this, the day of your
+affliction, we should mingle our griefs.
+
+"When a great man falls, the nation mourns; when a patriarch is removed,
+the people weep. Ours, my associates, is no common bereavement. The chain
+which linked our hearts with the gifted spirits of former times, has been
+rudely snapped. The lips from which flowed those living and glorious
+truths that our fathers uttered, are closed in death! Yes, my friends,
+Death has been among us! He has not entered the humble cottage of some
+unknown, ignoble peasant; he has knocked audibly at the palace of a
+nation! His footstep has been heard in the Hall of State! He has cloven
+down his victim in the midst of the councils of a people! He has borne in
+triumph from among you the gravest, wisest, most reverend head! Ah! he has
+taken him as a trophy who was once chief over many States, adorned with
+virtue, and learning, and truth; he has borne at his chariot-wheels a
+renowned one of the earth.
+
+"There was no incident in the birth, the life, the death of Mr. Adams, not
+intimately woven with the history of the land. Born in the night of his
+country's tribulation, he heard the first murmurs of discontent; he saw
+the first efforts for deliverance. Whilst yet a little child, he listened
+with eagerness to the whispers of freedom as they breathed from the lips
+of her almost inspired apostles: he caught the fire that was then kindled;
+his eye beamed with the first ray; he watched the day spring from on high,
+and long before he departed from earth, it was graciously vouchsafed unto
+him to behold the effulgence of her noontide glory. * * * * * * *
+
+"He disrobed himself with dignity of the vestures of office, not to retire
+to the shades of Quincy, but, in the maturity of his intellect, in the
+vigor of his thought, to leap into this arena, and to continue, as he had
+begun, a disciple, an ardent devotee at the temple of his country's
+freedom. How, in this department, he ministered to his country's wants, we
+all know, and have witnessed. How often we have crowded into that aisle,
+and clustered around that now vacant desk, to listen to the counsels of
+wisdom, as they fell from the lips of the venerable sage, we can all
+remember, for it was but of yesterday. But what a change! How wondrous!
+how sudden! 'Tis like a vision of the night. That form which we beheld but
+a few days since, is now cold in death!
+
+"But the last Sabbath, and in this hall, he worshipped with others. Now
+his spirit mingles with the noble army of martyrs, and the just made
+perfect, in the eternal adoration of the living God. With him "this is the
+end of earth." He sleeps the sleep that knows no waking. He is gone--and
+forever! The sun that ushers in the morn of that next holy day, while it
+gilds the lofty dome of the capitol, shall rest with soft and mellow light
+upon the consecrated spot beneath whose turf forever lies the PATRIOT
+FATHER and the PATRIOT SAGE!"
+
+The following resolutions were unanimously passed by the House of
+Representatives:--
+
+"Resolved, That this House has heard with the deepest sensibility, of the
+death in this capitol of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, a Member of the House from the
+State of Massachusetts.
+
+"Resolved, That, as a testimony of respect for the memory of this
+distinguished statesman, the officers and members of the House will wear
+the usual badge of mourning, and attend the funeral in this hall on
+Saturday next, at 12 o'clock.
+
+"Resolved, That a committee of thirty be appointed to superintend the
+funeral solemnities.
+
+"Resolved, That the proceedings of this House in relation to the death of
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS be communicated to the family of the deceased by the
+Clerk.
+
+"Resolved, That the seat in this hall just vacated by the death of the
+late JOHN QUINCY ADAMS be unoccupied for thirty days, and that it,
+together with the hall, remain clothed with the symbol of mourning during
+that time.
+
+"Resolved, That the Speaker appoint one member of this House from each
+State and Territory, as a committee to escort the remains of our venerable
+friend, the Honorable JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, to the place designated by his
+friends for his interment.
+
+"Resolved, That this House, as a further mark of respect for the memory of
+the deceased, do adjourn to Saturday next, the day appointed for the
+funeral."
+
+In the Senate, after a formal annunciation of the death of Mr. Adams, in a
+message from the House of Representatives, Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts,
+arose and delivered a feeling address, on the life and services of the
+deceased patriot. The following are extracts:--
+
+"Mr. President: By the recent affliction of my colleague, (Mr. Webster,) a
+painful duty devolves upon me. The message just delivered from the House
+proves that the hand of God has been again among us. A great and good man
+has gone from our midst. If, in speaking of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, I can give
+utterance to the language of my own heart, I am confident I shall meet
+with a response from the Senate.
+
+"He was born in the then Province of Massachusetts, while she was girding
+herself for the great revolutionary struggle which was then before her.
+His parentage is too well known to need even an allusion; yet I may be
+pardoned if I say, that his father seemed born to aid in the establishment
+of our free Government, and his mother was a suitable companion and
+co-laborer of such a patriot. The cradle hymns of the child were the songs
+of liberty. The power and competence of man for self-government were the
+topics which he most frequently heard discussed by the wise men of the
+day, and the inspiration thus caught gave form and pressure to his after
+life. Thus early imbued with the love of free institutions, educated by
+his father for the service of his country, and early led by WASHINGTON to
+its altar, he has stood before the world as one of its eminent statesmen.
+He has occupied, in turn, almost every place of honor which the country
+could give him, and for more than half a century, has been thus identified
+with its history. * * * * *
+
+"It is believed to have been the earnest wish of his heart to die, like
+Chatham, in the midst of his labors. It was a sublime thought, that where
+he had toiled in the house of the nation, in hours of the day devoted to
+its service, the stroke of death should reach him, and there sever the
+ties of love and patriotism which bound him to earth. He fell in his seat,
+attacked by paralysis, of which he had before been a subject. To describe
+the scene which ensued would be impossible. It was more than the
+spontaneous gush of feeling which all such events call forth, so much to
+the honor of our nature. It was the expression of reverence for his moral
+worth, of admiration for his great intellectual endowments, and of
+veneration for his age and public services. All gathered round the
+sufferer, and the strong sympathy and deep feeling which were manifested,
+showed that the business of the House (which was instantly adjourned) was
+forgotten amid the distressing anxieties of the moment. He was soon
+removed to the apartment of the Speaker, where he remained surrounded by
+afflicted friends till the weary clay resigned its immortal spirit. 'This
+is the end of earth!' Brief but emphatic words. They were among the last
+uttered by the dying Christian."
+
+When Mr. Davis had concluded his remarks, Mr. Benton, of Missouri,
+delivered a most beautiful eulogy on the character of Mr. Adams. He
+said:--
+
+"Mr. President: The voice of his native State has been heard through one
+of the Senators of Massachusetts, announcing the death of her aged and
+most distinguished son. The voice of the other Senator, (Mr. Webster,) is
+not heard, nor is his presence seen. A domestic calamity, known to us all,
+and felt by us all, confines him to the chamber of private grief, while
+the Senate is occupied with the public manifestations of a respect and
+sorrow which a national loss inspires. In the absence of that Senator, and
+as the member of this body longest here, it is not unfitting or unbecoming
+in me to second the motion which has been made for extending the last
+honors of the Senate to him who, forty-five years ago, was a member of
+this body, who, at the time of his death, was among the oldest members of
+the House of Representatives, and who, putting the years of his service
+together, was the oldest of all the members of the American Government.
+
+"The eulogium of Mr. Adams is made in the facts of his life, which the
+Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Davis) has so strikingly stated, that,
+from early manhood to octogenarian age, he has been constantly and most
+honorably employed in the public service. For a period of more than fifty
+years, from the time of his first appointment as Minister abroad under
+Washington, to his last election to the House of Representatives by the
+people of his native district, he has been constantly retained in the
+public service, and that, not by the favor of a Sovereign, or by
+hereditary title, but by the elections and appointments of republican
+Government. This fact makes the eulogy of the illustrious deceased. For
+what, except a union of all the qualities which command the esteem and
+confidence of man, could have ensured a public service so long, by
+appointments free and popular, and from sources so various and exalted?
+Minister many times abroad; member of this body; member of the House of
+Representatives; cabinet Minister; President of the United States; such
+has been the galaxy of his splendid appointments. And what but moral
+excellence the most perfect--intellectual ability the most eminent--
+fidelity the most unwavering--service the most useful, could have
+commanded such a succession of appointments so exalted, and from sources
+so various and so eminent? Nothing less could have commanded such a series
+of appointments; and accordingly we see the union of all these great
+qualities in him who has received them.
+
+"In this long career of public service Mr. Adams was distinguished not
+only by faithful attention to all the great duties of his stations, but to
+all their less and minor duties.  He was not the Salaminian galley, to be
+launched only on extraordinary occasions, but he was the ready vessel,
+always launched when the duties of his station required it, be the
+occasion great or small. As President, as cabinet Minister, as Minister
+abroad, he examined all questions that came before him, and examined all
+in all their parts, in all the minutiae of their detail, as well as in all
+the vastness of their comprehension. As Senator, and as a member of the
+House of Representatives, the obscure committee-room was as much the
+witness of his laborious application to the drudgery of legislation, as
+the halls of the two Houses were to the ever ready speech, replete with
+knowledge, which instructed all hearers, enlightened all subjects, and
+gave dignity and ornament to debate.
+
+"In the observance of all the proprieties of life, Mr. Adams was a most
+noble and impressive example. He cultivated the minor as well as the
+greater virtues. Wherever his presence could give aid and countenance to
+what was useful and honorable to man, there he was. In the exercises of
+the school and of the college--in the meritorious meetings of the
+agricultural, mechanical, and commercial societies--in attendance upon
+Divine worship--he gave the punctual attendance rarely seen but in those
+who are free from the weight of public cares.
+
+"Punctual to every duty, death found him at the post of duty; and where
+else could it have found him, at any stage of his career, for the fifty
+years of his illustrious public life?  From the time of his first
+appointment by Washington to his last election by the people of his native
+town, where could death have found him but at the post of duty? At that
+post, in the fullness of age in the ripeness of renown, crowned with
+honors, surrounded by his family, his friends, and admirers, and in the
+very presence of the national representation, he has been gathered to his
+fathers, leaving behind him the memory of public services which are the
+history of his country for half a century, and the example of a life,
+public and private, which should be the study and the model of the
+generations of his countrymen."
+
+At the conclusion of Mr. Benton's address, the following resolutions,
+introduced by Mr. Davis, were passed by the Senate:--
+
+"Resolved, That the Senate has received with deep sensibility the message
+from the House of Representatives announcing the death of the Hon. JOHN
+QUINCY ADAMS, a Representative from the State of Massachusetts.
+
+"Resolved, That, in token of respect for the memory of the deceased, the
+Senate will attend his funeral at the hour appointed by the House of
+Representatives, and will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty
+days.
+
+"Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect for the memory of the
+deceased, the Senate do now adjourn until Saturday next, the time
+appointed for the funeral."
+
+President Polk issued a Proclamation announcing to the nation its
+bereavement, and directing the suspension of all public business for the
+day. The public offices were clothed in mourning. Orders were issued from
+the War and Navy Departments, directing that at every military and naval
+station, on the day after the order should be received, the honors
+customary to the illustrious dead should be paid.
+
+At 12 o'clock on Saturday, the 26th of February, the funeral took place in
+the capitol. It was a solemn, an imposing scene. The Hall of
+Representatives was hung in sable habiliments. The portraits of Washington
+and La Fayette, the beautiful statue of the Muse of History in the car of
+Time, and the vacant chair of the deceased, were wreathed in crape. In the
+midst, and the most conspicuous of all, was the coffin containing the
+remains of the illustrious dead, covered with its velvet pall. The
+President of the United States, and the Heads of Departments, the Members
+of both Houses of Congress, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Foreign
+Ministers, Officers of the Army and Navy, Members of State Legislatures,
+and an immense concourse of the great, the wise, and the good, were
+present, to bestow honor on all that remained of the statesman, the
+philosopher, and the Christian.
+
+A discourse was delivered on the occasion, by the Rev. R. R. Gurley,
+chaplain to the House of Representatives, from Job xi. 17, 18--"And thine
+age shall be clearer than the noon-day; thou shalt shine forth, thou
+shalt be as the morning: and thou shalt be secure, because there is
+hope." The following are extracts from the sermon:--
+
+"In some circumstances, on some occasions, we most naturally express our
+emotions in silence and in tears. What voice of man can add to the
+impressiveness and solemnity of this scene? The presence and aspect of
+this vast assembly, the Chief Magistrate, Counsellors, Judges, Senators,
+and Representatives of the nation, distinguished officers of the army and
+the navy, and the honored Ambassadors from foreign powers,--these symbols
+and badges of a universal mourning, darkening this hall into sympathy with
+our sorrow, leave no place for the question, 'Know ye not that a prince
+and a great man is fallen in Israel?' Near to us, indeed, has come the
+invisible hand of the Almighty--that hand in which is the soul of every
+living thing, and the breath of all mankind; in this very hall, from
+yonder seat, which he so long occupied, in the midst of the
+representatives of the people, has it taken one full of years and honors,
+eminent, for more than half a century, in various departments of the
+public service; who adorned every station, even the highest, by his
+abilities and virtues; and whose influence, powerful in its beneficence,
+is felt in many, if not in all the States of the civilized world.
+* * * * *
+
+"Not more certainly is the body invigorated and preserved by suitable
+food, by manly exercises, by the vital air, than are the intellectual and
+moral faculties by the investigation and reception of divine truths, by
+habits of obedience to the divine will, by cheerful submission to the
+order and discipline of Divine Providence. Nor let us ever distrust the
+Father of our spirits, who knows perfectly all the wants of our nature,
+but rest assured that his commandments in the sacred Scriptures are
+entirely in harmony with the decrees of his providence; and that as to
+fear Him and keep His commandments is the whole duty (because the highest
+duty, and comprehending all others), so will it prove the whole and
+eternal happiness of man. If the indissoluble and harmonious connection
+between the laws of nature, of Providence and the moral law, be not
+always obvious, it is always certain. Over all the darkness, disturbances,
+and evils of the world shines revealed, more or less clearly, like the
+serene and cheerful heavens, this immutable law, binding virtue, however
+obscure, persecuted, or forsaken, to reward; duty, however humble or
+arduous, to happiness. Hence the declaration, that all things shall work
+together for good to them who love God, and that all things are
+theirs--the past and future, things temporal and spiritual, prosperity and
+adversity, angels, and principalities, and powers, and God himself, in all
+the resources of his wisdom and all the eternity of his reign.
+
+"How shone out, clear as the noonday, yet mild and gentle as the morning,
+even in age, in the life and character of that great and venerable man,
+around whose precious, but, alas! inanimate form we all press in
+gratitude, admiration, and love, those high virtues derived from faith in
+God, and nurtured by his revealed truth, this bereaved Congress, and, I
+may add, this nation witnesses. * * * * * *
+
+"Truly emblematic of his moral integrity and strength of character would
+be the granite column from his native hills, one and entire, just in its
+proportions, towering in its height, immoveable in its foundations, and
+pointing to Heaven as the temple and throne of everlasting authority, the
+final refuge, the imperishable home of all regenerated and faithful souls.
+
+"Independence of mere human authority in the use of his reason, on all
+subjects, was united with veneration most sincere and profound for the
+sacred Scriptures, as a supernatural revelation from God, 'whose
+prerogative extends not less to the reason than the will of man,' and from
+a daily perusal of the Divine Word, and a constant and devout attendance
+upon the public worship of the Sabbath, although differing on some points
+from common opinions, he cherished enlarged views of Christian communion,
+and recognized in most, if not all the religious denominations of this
+country, members of one and the same family and kingdom of Jesus Christ.
+* * * * * * *
+
+"Alas, the sad and appalling ruins of death! 'This is the end of earth.'
+Approach! lovers of pleasure, seekers after wisdom, aspirants, by
+pre-eminence in station, and power, and influence among men, to fame; see
+the end of human distinctions and earthly greatness! Surely man walketh
+in a vain show; surely man in his best estate is altogether vanity. How
+pertinent to this scene the words of Job: 'He leadeth princes away
+spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the
+trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He discovereth
+deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of
+death!' How, indeed, is the mighty fallen, and the head of the wise laid
+low! All flesh is grass--all the glory of man as the flower of the field.
+And shall this vast congregation soon be brought to the grave--that house
+appointed for all the living? Hear, then, the great announcement of the
+Son of God: 'I am the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believeth
+in me, though he were dead yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and
+believeth in me shall never die.' Is it strange that he who communed so
+much with the future as the great statesman to whose virtues and memory we
+now pay this sad, final, solemn tribute of honor and affection, should, in
+the last conversation I ever had with him, have expressed both regret and
+astonishment at the indifference among too many of our public men to the
+truths and ordinances of our holy religion? Is it to affect our hearts
+that he has been permitted to fall in the midst of us, to arouse us from
+this insensibility, and cause us to press towards the gates of the eternal
+city of God? Let us bless God for another great example to shine upon us,
+that another star (we humbly trust) is planted amid the heavenly
+constellations to guide us to eternity!"
+
+At the conclusion of the exercises in the capitol, a vast procession,
+escorted by military companies, conveyed the remains to the Congressional
+burying ground, where they were to rest until preparations for their
+removal to Quincy should be completed.
+
+  "Sad was the pomp that yesterday beheld,
+   As with the mourner's heart the anthem swelled;
+   The rich-plumed canopy, the gorgeous pall,
+   The sacred march, and sable vested wall!--
+   These were not rites of inexpressive show,
+   But hallowed as the types of real woe!
+   Illustrious deceased! a NATION'S sighs,
+   A NATION'S HEART, went with thine obsequies!"
+
+The following letter of thanks from Mrs. Adams, addressed to the Speaker,
+was laid before the House of Representatives:--
+
+                                         "Washington, February 29, 1848.
+"SIR: The resolutions in honor of my dear deceased husband, passed by the
+illustrious assembly over which you preside, and of which he at the moment
+of his death was a member, have been duly communicated to me.
+
+"Penetrated with grief at this distressing event of my life, mourning the
+loss of one who has been at once my example and my support through the
+trials of half a century, permit me nevertheless to express through you my
+deepest gratitude for the signal manner in which the public regard has
+been voluntarily manifested by your honorable body, and the consolation
+derived to me and mine from the reflection that the unwearied efforts of
+an old public servant have not even in this world proved without their
+reward in the generous appreciation of them by his country.
+
+"With great respect, I remain, sir, your obedient servant,
+                                             "LOUISA CATHARINE ADAMS."
+
+On the following week, the Committee of one from each State and Territory
+in the Union, appointed by the House of Representatives to take charge of
+the remains of the deceased ex-President, and convey them to Quincy for
+final interment, commenced their journey. It was a new, yet inexpressibly
+thrilling and imposing spectacle. The dead body of "the Old Man Eloquent,"
+surrounded and guarded by a son of each of the States and Territories of
+that Union which he had so largely assisted in consolidating and
+sustaining, leaves the capitol of the nation, where for more than thirty
+years he had acted the most conspicuous part among the fathers of the
+land, to rest in the tomb of its ancestors, amid the venerable shades of
+Quincy. How solemn the progress of such a procession. It was indeed, "the
+Funeral March of the Dead!" Wherever it passed, the people rose up and
+paid the utmost marks of respect to the remains of one who had occupied so
+large a space in the history of his country. In towns, in villages, in
+cities, as the mournful cortege swept through, business was suspended,
+flags were displayed at half mast, bells were tolled, minute guns were
+fired, civil and military processions received the sacred remains, and
+watched over them by night and by day, and passed them on from State to
+State.
+
+"What a progress was it which the dead patriot thus made! From the capitol
+of the nation, beneath whose dome, and while at his post of duty, he was
+seized by death--within sight almost of that Mount Vernon where repose
+the ashes of him, the Father of his Country, who first distinguished,
+encouraged and employed the extraordinary capacity of the youthful
+Adams--through cities that in his life time have grown up from
+villages--passing, at Baltimore, almost beneath the shadow of the monument
+which there testifies of the valor of those who fell for country in the
+war of 1812--and in Philadelphia halting and reposing within the hall
+where his great father; John Adams, had fearlessly stood for Independence,
+and where Independence was proclaimed--the dead passed on, everywhere
+followed by the reverential gaze and the mourning heart, till, reaching
+the great metropolis of New York, where the same father had been sworn in
+and taken his seat, as the first Vice President of the United States, with
+George Washington for President! Thence away the march was resumed, till
+it reached old Faneuil Hall--the cradle of American liberty, the fitting
+final restingplace, while yet unburied, of the body of one in whose heart,
+at no moment of life, did the love of liberty, imbibed or strengthened in
+that hall, suffer the slightest abatement." [Footnote: King's Eulogy.]
+
+Faneuil Hall was clothed in the dark drapery of mourning, fitting to
+receive the body of one of the greatest of the many noble sons of the
+venerable Bay State. Amid solemn dirges and appropriate ceremonies, the
+chairman of the Congressional Committee surrendered to a Committee from
+the Legislature of Massachusetts, the sacred remains they had accompanied
+from the capitol of the United States.--
+
+"Throughout the journey," said the chairman, "there have been displayed
+manifestations of the highest admiration and respect for the memory of
+your late distinguished fellow-citizen. In the large cities through which
+we expected to pass, we anticipated such demonstrations; but in every
+village and hamlet, at the humblest cottage which we passed, and from the
+laborers in the field, the same profound respect was testified by their
+uncovered heads."
+
+The Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature having thus received the
+body from its Congressional escort, in turn surrendered it to the keeping
+of the municipal authorities of Boston, for burial at Quincy. This
+ceremony was performed by Mr. Buckingham, chairman of the Legislative
+Committee, in these impressive words:--
+
+"In the name and behalf of the Government and People of the Commonwealth
+of Massachusetts, whose honored but humble servant I this day am, I
+consign to your faithful keeping, Mr. Mayor, the remains of JOHN QUINCY
+ADAMS--all that was mortal of that venerable man, whose age and whose
+virtues had rendered him an object of intense interest and admiration to
+his country and to the world. We place these sacred remains in your
+possession, to be conveyed to their appointed home--to sleep in the
+sepulchre and with the dust of his fathers."
+
+Mr. Quincy, the Mayor, in accepting the guardianship conferred upon him in
+behalf of the city of Boston, replied in the following terms:--
+
+"There is something sublime in the scene that surrounds us. An honored son
+of Massachusetts--one who was educated by a signer of the Declaration of
+Independence--one who heard the thunder of the great struggle for liberty
+on yonder hill, has, after a life of unparalleled usefulness and fidelity,
+fallen in the capitol of the country he served. His remains were escorted
+here by delegates from every State in the Union. They have passed over
+spots ever memorable in history. They have everywhere been received with
+funeral honors. They have reposed in the hall of independence. They now
+lie in the cradle of liberty. As a citizen of Massachusetts, I cannot but
+acknowledge our sense of the honor paid to her distinguished son. Mourned
+by a nation at its capitol, attended by the representatives of millions to
+the grave, he has received a tribute to his memory unequalled among men.
+
+"These remains now rest in the cradle of liberty. It is their last
+resting-place on their journey home. As a statesman's, 'this is to them
+the last of earth!' To-morrow they will be deposited in the peaceful
+church-yard of the village of his birth, there to be mourned, not as
+statesmen mourn for statesmen, but as friends mourn for friends.
+
+"He will be 'gathered to his fathers!' And how great, in this case, is the
+significance of the expression! It is possible that other men may be
+attended as he will be to the grave. But when again shall the tomb of a
+President of the United States open its doors to receive a son who has
+filled the same office?"
+
+On the following day, the body, under the charge of the municipal officers
+of Boston, was conveyed to Quincy. In the Unitarian church, in the
+presence of old neighbors and friends, the last funeral exercises were
+held, and the last sad burial service was performed.
+
+By the side of the graves of his fathers, overshadowed by aged trees,
+which had sheltered his head in the days of boyhood, in a plain tomb,
+prepared under his own direction, and inscribed simply with his name,
+sleep the ashes of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
+
+  "Let no weak drops
+   Be shed for him. The virgin in her bloom
+   Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child,
+   These are the tombs that claim the tender tear
+   And elegiac songs. But Adams calls
+   For other notes of gratulation high;
+   That now he wanders thro' those endless worlds
+   He here so well descried; and, wondering, talks
+   And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.
+   Columbia's boast! whether with angels thou
+   Sittest in dread discourse, or fellow blest
+   Who joy to see the honor of their kind;
+   Or whether, mounted on cherubic wing,
+   Thy swift career is with the whirling orbs,
+   Comparing things with things, in rapture lost,
+   And grateful adoration for that light
+   So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below
+   From Light himself--oh! look with pity down
+   On human kind, a frail, erroneous race!
+   Exalt the spirit of a downward world!
+   O'er thy dejected country chief preside,
+   And be her Genius called! her studies raise,
+   Correct her manners, and inspire her youth;
+   For, though deprav'd and sunk, she brought thee forth,
+   And glories in thy name. She points thee out
+   To all her sons, and bids them eye thy star--
+   Thy star, which, followed steadfastly, shall lead
+   To wisdom, virtue, glory here, and joy
+   Unspeakable in worlds to come."
+
+
+
+EULOGY.[Footnote: Delivered before the Legislature of New York, by Wm. H.
+Seward.]
+
+------
+
+We are in the midst of extraordinary events. British-American Civilization
+and Spanish-American Society have come into collision, each in its fullest
+maturity. The armies of the North have penetrated the chapparels at Palo
+Alto and Resaca de la Palma--passed the fortresses of Monterey, and rolled
+back upon the heart of Mexico the unavailing tide of strong resistance
+from the mountain-side of Buena Vista. Martial colonists are encamped on
+the coasts of California, while San Juan d'Ulloa has fallen, and the
+invaders have swept the gorge of Cerro Gordo--carried Perote and Puebla,
+and planted the banner of burning stars and ever-multiplying stripes on
+the towers of the city of the Aztecs.
+
+The thirtieth Congress assembles in this conjuncture, and the debates are
+solemn, earnest, and bewildering. Interest, passion, conscience, freedom,
+and humanity, all have their advocates. Shall new loans and levies be
+granted to prosecute still farther a war so glorious? or shall it be
+abandoned? Shall we be content with the humiliation of the foe? or shall
+we complete his subjugation? Would that severity be magnanimous, or even
+just? Nay, is the war itself just? Who provoked, and by what unpardonable
+offence, this disastrous strife between two eminent Republics, so
+scandalous to Democratic Institutions? Where shall we trace anew the
+ever-advancing line of our empire? Shall it be drawn on the shore of the
+Rio Grande, or on the summit of the Sierra Madre? or shall Mexican
+Independence be extinguished, and our eagle close his adventurous pinions
+only when he looks off upon the waves that separate us from the Indies?
+Does Freedom own and accept our profuse oblations of blood, or does she
+reject the sacrifice? Will these conquests extend her domain, or will they
+be usurped by ever-grasping slavery? What, effect will this new-born
+ambition have upon ourselves? Will it leave us the virtue to continue the
+career of social progress? How shall we govern the conquered people? Shall
+we incorporate their mingled races with ourselves, or rule them with the
+despotism of proconsular power? Can we preserve these remote and hostile
+possessions in any way, without forfeiting our own blood-bought heritage
+of freedom?
+
+Steam and lightning, which have become docile messengers, make the
+American people listeners to this high debate, and anxiety, and interest,
+intense and universal, absorb them all. Suddenly the council is dissolved.
+Silence is in the capitol, and sorrow has thrown its pall over the land.
+What new event is this? Has some Cromwell closed the legislative
+chambers? or has some Caesar, returning from his distant conquests, passed
+the Rubicon, seized the purple, and fallen in the Senate beneath the
+swords of self-appointed executioners of his country's vengeance? No!
+nothing of all this. What means, then, this abrupt and fearful silence?
+What unlooked for calamity has quelled the debates of the Senate and
+calmed the excitement of the people? An old man, whose tongue once indeed
+was eloquent, but now through age had well nigh lost its cunning, has
+fallen into the swoon of death. He was not an actor in the drama of
+conquest--nor had his feeble voice yet mingled in the lofty argument--
+
+  "A grey-haired sire, whose eye intent
+   Was on the visioned future bent."
+
+And now he has dreamed out at last the troubled dream of life. Sighs of
+unavailing grief ascend to Heaven. Panegyric, fluent in long-stifled
+praise, performs its office. The army and the navy pay conventional
+honors, with the pomp of national woe, and then the hearse moves onward.
+It rests appropriately, on its way, in the hall where independence was
+proclaimed, and again under the dome where freedom was born. At length the
+tomb of JOHN ADAMS opens to receive a SON, who also, born a subject of a
+king had stood as a representative of his emancipated country, before
+principalities and powers, and had won by merit, and worn without
+reproach, the honors of the Republic.
+
+From that scene, so impressive in itself, and impressive because it never
+before happened, and can never happen again, we have come up to this place
+surrounded with the decent drapery of public mourning, on a day set apart
+by authority, to recite the history of the citizen, who, in the ripeness
+of age, and fulness of honors, has thus descended to his rest. It is fit
+to do so, because it is by such exercises that nations regenerate their
+early virtues and renew their constitutions. All nations must perpetually
+renovate their virtues and their constitutions, or perish. Never was there
+more need to renovate ours than now, when we seem to be passing from the
+safe old policy of peace and moderation into a career of conquest and
+martial renown. Never was the duty of preserving our free institutions in
+all their purity, more obvious than it is now, when they have become
+beacons to mankind in what seems to be a general dissolution of their
+ancient social systems.
+
+The history of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS is one that opens no new truth in the
+philosophy of virtue; for there is no undiscovered truth in that
+philosophy. But it is a history that sheds marvellous confirmation on
+maxims which all mankind know, and yet are prone to undervalue and forget.
+The exalted character before us was formed by the combination of virtue,
+courage, assiduity, and modesty, under favorable conditions, with native
+talent and genius, and illustrates the truth, that in morals as in nature,
+simplicity is the chief element of the sublime.
+
+John Quincy Adams was fortunate in his lineage; in the period, and in the
+place of his nativity; in all the circumstances of education; in the age
+and country in which he lived; in the incidents, as well as the occasions
+of his public service; and in the period and manner of his death. He was a
+descendant from one of the Puritan planters of Massachusetts, and a son of
+the most intrepid actor in the Revolution of Independence. Quincy, the
+place of his birth, is a plain, bounded on the west by towering granite
+hills, and swept without defence by every wind from the ocean. Its soil
+in ancient times was as sterile as its climate is always rigorous.
+
+Born on the eleventh day of July, 1767, in the hour of the agitation of
+rebellion, and reared within sight and sound of gathering war, the
+earliest political ideas he received were such as John Adams then
+uttered--"We must fight." "Sink or swim--live or die--survive or perish
+with my country, is my unalterable determination." A mother fervently
+pious, and eminent in intellectual gifts, directed with more than maternal
+assiduity and solicitude the education of him who was to render her own
+name immortal. Never quite divorced from home, yet twice, and for long
+periods in his youth, a visitor in Europe, he enjoyed always the parental
+discipline of one of the founders of the American State, and often the
+daily conversation of Franklin and Jefferson; and combined travel in
+France, Spain, England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and even
+diplomatic experience, with the instructions of the schools of Paris, of
+the University at Leyden, and of Harvard University at Cambridge; and all
+these influences fell upon him at a period when his country, then opening
+the way to human liberty through trials of fire, fixed the attention of
+mankind.
+
+The establishment of the Republic of the United States of America, is the
+most important secular event in the history of the human race. It did not
+disentangle the confused theory of the origin of Government, but cut
+through the bonds of power existing by prescription, at a blow; and thus
+directly and immediately affected the opinions and the actions of men in
+every part of the civilized world. It animated them everywhere to seek
+freedom from despotic power and aristocratic restraint. Whenever and
+wherever they have since moved, either by peaceful agitation or by
+physical force, to meliorate systems of government, whether in France at
+the close of the last century, or afterward on the second subversion of
+the elder branch of the Bourbons, or in the recent overthrow of the
+constitutional king, or in Ireland, or in England, or in Italy, or in
+Greece, or in South America, whether they succeeded or failed, there, in
+the tumult or in the strife, was the spirit of the American Revolution.
+"It gave an example of a great people, not merely emancipating themselves,
+but governing themselves, without either a monarch to control, or an
+aristocracy to restrain them; and it demonstrated, for the first time in
+the history of the world, contrary to the predictions and theories of
+speculative philosophy, that a great nation, when duly prepared, is
+capable of self-government by purely republican institutions."
+
+But the establishment of the American Republic was too great an
+achievement to be made all at once. It was a drama of five grand acts,
+each of which filled a considerable period, and called upon the stage
+actors of peculiar powers and distinguished virtues. Those acts were,
+colonization, preparation, revolution, organization, consolidation.
+
+Two of these acts were closed before John Quincy Adams was born. The
+third, the revolution, the shortest of them all, dazzles the contemplation
+by the rapidity and the martial character of its incidents. The fourth,
+the organization of the Government, by the splendors of genius elicited,
+and the felicity of the new form of government presented, satisfies the
+superficial inquirer that, when the Constitution had been adopted, nothing
+remained to perfect the great achievement. But other nations have had
+successful revolutions, and have set up free constitutions, and have yet
+sunk again under reinvigorated despotism. The CONSOLIDATION of the
+American Republic--the crowning act--occupied forty years, reaching from
+1789 to 1829. During that period, John Quincy Adams participated
+continually in public affairs, and ultimately became the principal actor.
+
+The new Government was purely an experiment. In opposition to the fixed
+habits of mankind, it established suffrage practically universal, and
+representation so perfect that not one Legislative House only, but both
+Houses; not legislative officers only, but all officers, executive,
+ministerial, and even judicial, were directly or indirectly elected by the
+people. The longest term of the senatorial trust was but six years, and
+the shortest only two, and even the tenure of the executive power was only
+four years. This Government, betraying so much popular jealousy, was
+invested with only special and limited sovereignty. The conduct of merely
+municipal affairs was distributed within the States, among Governments
+even more popular than the federal structure, and without whose
+ever-renewed support that structure must fall.
+
+The Government thus constituted, so new, so complex and artificial, was to
+be consolidated, in the midst of difficulties at home, and of dangers
+abroad. The constitution had been adopted only upon convictions of
+absolute necessity, and with evanescent dispositions of compromise. By
+nearly half of the people it was thought too feeble to sustain itself, and
+secure the rights for which governments are instituted among men. By as
+many it was thought liable to be converted into an over-shadowing
+despotism, more formidable and more odious than the monarchy which had
+been subverted. These conflicting opinions revealed themselves in like
+discordance upon every important question of administration, and were made
+the basis of parties, which soon became jealous and irreconcilable, and
+ultimately inveterate, and even in some degree disloyal.
+
+These domestic feuds were aggravated by pernicious influences from Europe.
+In the progress of western civilization, the nations of the earth had
+become social. The new Republic could not, like the Celestial Empire, or
+that of Japan, confine itself within its own boundaries, and exist without
+national intercourse. It had entered the family of nations. But the
+position it was to assume, and the advantages it was to be allowed to
+enjoy, were yet to be ascertained and fixed. Its independence, confessed
+to be only a doubtful experiment at home, was naturally thought ephemeral
+in Europe. Its example was ominous, and the European Powers willingly
+believed that, if discountenanced and baffled, America would soon relapse
+into colonial subjugation. Such prejudices were founded in the fixed
+habits of society. Not only the thirteen colonies, but the whole American
+hemisphere, had been governed by European States from the period of its
+discovery. The very soil belonged to the trans-atlantic monarchs by
+discovery, or by ecclesiastical gift. Dominion over it attached by divine
+right to their persons, and drew after it obligations of inalienable
+allegiance upon those who became the inhabitants of the new world. The new
+world was indeed divided between different powers, but the system of
+government was the same. It was administered for the benefit of the
+parental State alone. Each power prohibited all foreign trade with its
+Colonies, and all intercourse between them and other plantations, supplied
+its Colonies with what they needed from abroad, interdicted their
+manufactures, and monopolized their trade. The prevalence of this system
+over the whole continent of America and the adjacent islands prevented all
+enterprize in the colonies, discouraged all improvement, and retarded
+their progress to independence.
+
+The American Revolution sundered these bonds only so far as they confined
+thirteen of the British Colonies, and left the remaining British
+dominions, and the continent, from Georgia around Cape Horn to the
+Northern Ocean, under the same thraldom as before. Even the United States
+had attained only physical independence. The moral influences of the
+colonial system oppressed them still. Their trade, their laws, their
+science, their literature, their social connections, their ecclesiastical
+relations, their manners and their habits, were still colonial; and their
+thoughts continually clung around the ancient and majestic States of the
+Eastern Continent.
+
+The American Revolution, so happily concluded here, broke out in France
+simultaneously with the beginning of Washington's administration. The
+French nation passed in fifteen years from absolute despotism under Louis
+XVI., through all the phases of democracy to a military despotism under
+Napoleon Bonaparte; and retained through all these changes, only two
+characteristics--unceasing ferocity of faction, and increasing violence of
+aggression against foreign States. The scandal of the French Revolution
+fell back upon the United States of America, who were regarded as the
+first disturbers of the ancient social system. The principal European
+monarchs combined, under the guidance of England, to arrest the
+presumptuous career of France and extirpate democracy by the sword.
+Nevertheless, the republican cause, however odious in Europe, was our
+national cause. The sympathies of a large portion of the American people
+could not be withdrawn from the French nation, which always claimed, even
+when marshalled into legions under the Corsican conqueror, to be fighting
+the battles of freedom; while, on the other side, the citizens who
+regarded innovation as worse than tyranny, considered England and her
+allies as engaged in sustaining the cause of order, of government, and of
+society itself.
+
+The line already drawn between the American people in regard to their
+organic law, naturally became the dividing line of the popular sympathies
+in the great European conflict. Thus deeply furrowed, that line became "a
+great gulf fixed." The Federal party unconsciously became an English
+party, although it indignantly disowned the epithet; and the Republican
+party became a French party, although with equal sincerity it denied the
+gross impeachment. Each belligerent was thus encouraged to hope some aid
+from the United States, through the ever-expected triumph of its friends;
+while both conceived contemptuous opinions of a people who, from too eager
+interest in a foreign fray, suffered their own national rights to be
+trampled upon with impunity by the contending States.
+
+Washington set the new machine of government in motion. He formed his
+cabinet of recognized leaders of the adverse parties. Hamilton and Knox of
+the Federal party were balanced by Jefferson and Randolph of the adverse
+party. "Washington took part with neither, but held the balance between
+them with the scrupulous justice which marked his lofty nature." On the
+25th of April, 1793, he announced the neutrality of the United States
+between the belligerents, and his decision, without winning the respect of
+either, exasperated both. Each invaded our national rights more flagrantly
+than before, and excused the injustice by the plea of necessary
+retaliation against its adversary, and each found willing apologists in a
+sympathizing faction in our own country.
+
+Commercial and political relations were to be established between the
+United States and the European Powers in this season of conflict.
+Ministers were needed who could maintain and vindicate abroad the same
+impartiality practised by Washington at home. There was one citizen
+eminently qualified for such a trust in such a conjuncture. Need I say
+that citizen was the younger Adams, and that Washington had the sagacity
+to discover him?
+
+John Quincy Adams successively completed missions at the Hague and at
+Berlin, in the period intervening between 1794 and 1801, with such
+advantage and success, that in 1802 he was honored by his native
+commonwealth with a seat as her representative in the Senate of the United
+States. The insults offered to our country by the belligerents increased
+in aggravation as the contest between them became more violent and
+convulsive. France, in 1804, laid aside even the name and forms of a
+Republic, and the first consul, dropping the emblems of popular power,
+placed the long-coveted diadem upon his brow, where its jewels sparkled
+among the laurels he had won in the conquest of Italy. Washington's
+administration had passed away, leaving the American people in sullen
+discontent. John Adams had succeeded, and had atoned by the loss of power
+for the offence he had given by causing a just but unavailing war to be
+declared against France. Jefferson was at the head of the Government; he
+thought the belligerents might be reduced to forbearance by depriving them
+of our commercial contributions of supplies, and recommended, first an
+embargo, and then non-intercourse. Britain was an insular and France a
+continental power. The effects of these measures would therefore be more
+severe on the former than on the latter, and, unhappily, they were more
+severe on our own country than on either of the offenders.
+
+Massachusetts was the chief commercial State in the Union. She saw the
+ruin of her commerce involved in the policy of Jefferson, and regarded it
+as an unworthy concession to the usurper of the French throne. In this
+emergency John Quincy Adams turned his back on Massachusetts, and threw
+into the uprising scale of the administration, the weight of his talents
+and of his already eminent fame. Massachusetts instructed the recusant to
+recant. He refused to obey, and resigned his place. His change of
+political relations astounded the country, and, with the customary charity
+of partisan zeal, was attributed to venality. It is now seen by us in the
+light reflected upon it by the habitual independence, unquestioned purity,
+and lofty patriotism of his whole life; and thus seen, constitutes only
+the first marked one of many instances wherein he broke the green withes
+which party fastened upon him, and maintained the cause of his country,
+referring the care of his fame to God and to an impartial posterity. Like
+Decimus Brutus, whom Julius Caesar saluted among his executioners with
+the exclamation "Et tu, Brute!" John Quincy Adams was not unfaithful, but
+he could not be obliged where he was not left free.
+
+Jefferson retired in 1809, leaving to his successor, the scholastic and
+peace-loving Madison, the perilous legacy of perplexed foreign relations,
+and embittered domestic feuds. Great Britain now filled the measure of
+exasperations, by insolently searching our vessels on the high seas, and
+impressing into her marine all whom she chose to suspect of having been
+born in her allegiance, even though they had renounced it and had assumed
+the relations of American citizens. War was therefore imminent and
+inevitable. Russia was then coming forward to a position of commanding
+influence in Europe, and her youthful Emperor Alexander had won, by his
+chivalrous bearing, the respect of mankind. John Quincy Adams was wisely
+sent by the United States, to establish relations of amity with the great
+power of the North; and while he was thus engaged, the flames of European
+war, which had been so long averted, involved his own country. War was
+declared against Great Britain.
+
+It was just. It was necessary. Yet it was a war that dared Great Britain
+to re-assert her ancient sovereignty. It was a war with a power whose
+wealth and credit were practically inexhaustible, a power whose navy rode
+unchecked over all the seas, and whose impregnable garrisons encircled the
+globe.
+
+Against such a power the war was waged by a nation that had not yet
+accumulated wealth, nor established credit, nor even opened avenues
+suitable for transporting munitions of war through its extended
+territories--that had only the germ of a navy, an inconsiderable army, and
+not one substantial fortress. Yet such a war, under such circumstances,
+was denounced as unnecessary and unjust, though for no better reason than
+because greater contumelies had been endured at the hands of France. Thus
+a domestic feud, based on the very question of the war itself, enervated
+the national strength, and encouraged the mighty adversary.
+
+The desperate valor displayed at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, at Fort Erie
+and Plattsburgh, and the brilliant victories won in contests between
+single ships of war on the ocean and armed fleets on the lakes, vindicated
+the military prowess of the United States, but brought us no decisive
+advantage. A suspension of the conflict in Europe followed Napoleon's
+disastrous invasion of Russia, and left America alone opposed to her great
+adversary. Peace was necessary, because the national credit was
+exhausted--because the fortunes of the war were inclining against us--and
+because the opposition to it was ripening into disorganizing councils.
+Adams had prepared the way by securing the mediation of Alexander. Then,
+in that critical period, associated with Russell, Bayard, the learned and
+versatile Gallatin, and the eloquent and chivalric Clay, he negotiated
+with firmness, with assiduity, with patience, and with consummate ability,
+a definitive treaty of peace--a treaty of peace which, although it omitted
+the causes of the war already obsolete, saved and established and
+confirmed in its whole integrity the independence of the Republic--a
+treaty of peace that yet endures, and, we willingly hope, may endure
+forever.
+
+After fulfilling a subsequent mission at the Court of St. James, the
+pacificator entered the domestic service of the country as Secretary of
+State in the administration of James Monroe; and at the expiration of that
+administration became President of the United States. He attained the
+honors of the Republic at the age of fifty-seven, in the forty-ninth year
+of independence. He was sixth in the succession, and with him closed the
+line of Chief Magistrates who had rendered to their country some tribute
+of their talents in civil or military service in the war of independence.
+
+John Quincy Adams, on entering civil life, had found the Republic
+unstable. He retired in 1829, leaving it firmly established. It was thus
+his happy fortune to preside at the completion of that work of
+consolidation, the beginning of which was the end of the labors of
+Washington.
+
+John Quincy Adams engaged in this great work while yet in private life, in
+1793. He showed to his fellow-citizens, in a series of essays, the
+inability of the French people to maintain free institutions at that time,
+and the consequent necessity of American neutrality in the European war.
+These publications aided Washington so much the more because they
+anticipated his own decision. Adams sustained the same great cause when he
+strengthened the administration of Jefferson against the preponderating
+influence of Great Britain. His diplomatic services in Holland and Russia
+secured, at a critical period, a favorable consideration in the Courts of
+those countries, which conduced to the same end; and his brilliant success
+in restoring peace to the country so sorely pressed, relieved her from her
+enemies, reassured her, and gave to sceptical Europe conclusive proof
+that her republican institutions were destined to endure.
+
+The administration of John Quincy Adams blends so intimately with that of
+Monroe, in which he was chief Minister, that no dividing line can be drawn
+between them. Adams may be said, without derogation from the fame of
+Monroe, to have swayed the Government during his presidency; and with
+equal truth, Monroe may be admitted to have continued his administration
+through that of his successor.
+
+The consolidation of the Republic required that faction should be
+extinguished. Monroe began this difficult task cautiously, and pursued it
+with good effect. John Quincy Adams completed the achievement. The dignity
+and moderation which marked his acceptance of the highest trust which a
+free people could confer, beautifully foreshadowed the magnanimity with
+which it was to be discharged. He confessed himself deeply sensible of the
+circumstances under which it had been conferred:--
+
+All my predecessors (he said) have been honored with majorities of the
+electoral voices, in the primary colleges. It has been my fortune to be
+placed, by the divisions of sentiment prevailing among our countrymen, on
+this occasion, in competition, friendly and honorable, with three of my
+fellow-citizens, all justly enjoying, in eminent degrees, the public
+favor; and of whose worth, talents and services, no one entertains a
+higher and more respectful sense than myself. The names of two of them
+were, in the fulfilment of the provisions of the constitution, presented
+to the selection of the House of Representatives, in concurrence with my
+own, names closely associated with the glory of the nation, and one of
+them farther recommended by a larger majority of the primary electoral
+suffrages than mine. In this state of things, could my refusal to accept
+the trust thus delegated to me give an opportunity to the people to form
+and to express, with a nearer approach to unanimity, the object of their
+preference, I should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of this
+eminent charge, and to submit the decision of this momentous question
+again to their determination.
+
+It argued a noble consciousness of virtue to express, on such an occasion,
+so ingenuously, the emotions of a generous ambition.
+
+He displayed the same great quality no less when he called to the post of
+chief Minister, in spite of clamors of corruption, Henry Clay, that one of
+his late rivals who alone among his countrymen had the talents and
+generosity which the responsibilities of the period exacted.
+
+John Quincy Adams signalized his accession to the post of dangerous
+elevation by avowing the sentiments concerning parties by which he was
+inflexibly governed throughout his administration:--
+
+Of the two great political parties [he said] which have divided the
+opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now
+admit, that both have contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity,
+ardent patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices, to the formation and
+administration of the Government, and that both have required a liberal
+indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The revolutionary
+wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the Government of
+the United States first went into operation under the constitution,
+excited collisions of sentiments, and of sympathies, which kindled all the
+passions and embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was
+involved in war, and the Union was shaken to its centre. This time of
+trial embraced a period of five-and-twenty years, during which the policy
+of the Union in its relations with Europe constituted the principal basis
+of our own political divisions, and the most arduous part of action of the
+Federal Government. With the catastrophe in which the wars of the French
+Revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain,
+this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time no
+difference of principle, connected with the theory of government, or with
+our intercourse with foreign nations, has existed or been called forth in
+force sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties, or given
+more than wholesome animation to public sentiment or legislative debate.
+Our political creed, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, is that
+the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people is
+the end, of all legitimate government upon earth--that the best security
+for the beneficence, and the best guaranty against the abuse of power,
+consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular
+elections. That the General Government of the Union, and the separate
+Governments of the States, are all sovereignties of legitimate powers;
+fellow servants of the same masters, uncontrolled within their respective
+spheres--uncontrollable by encroachments on each other. If there have been
+those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy was a
+government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common
+concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled. If there
+have been projects of partial confederacies to be erected upon the ruins
+of the Union, they have been scattered to the winds. If there have been
+dangerous attachments to one foreign nation, and antipathies against
+another, they have been extinguished. Ten years of peace at home and
+abroad have assuaged the animosities of political contention and blended
+into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion. There still
+remains one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion,
+to be made by the individuals throughout the nation who have heretofore
+followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every
+remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing, as countrymen and
+friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence
+which, in times of contention for principle, was bestowed only upon those
+who bore the badge of party communion.
+
+During the administration of John Quincy Adams, he was really the Chief
+Magistrate. He submitted neither his reason nor his conscience to the
+control of any partisan cabal. No man was appointed to office in obedience
+to political dictation, and no faithful public servant was proscribed. The
+result rewarded his magnanimity. Faction ceased to exist. When South
+Carolina, a few years afterward, assumed the very ground that the ancient
+republican party had indicated as lawful and constitutional, and claimed
+the right and power to set aside, within her own limits, acts of Congress
+which she pronounced void, because they transcended the Federal authority,
+she called on the republican party throughout the Union in vain. The
+dangerous heresy had been renounced forever. Since that time there has
+been no serious project of a combination to resist the laws of the Union,
+much less of a conspiracy to subvert the Union itself.
+
+What though the elements of political strife remain? They are necessary
+for the life of free States. What though there still are parties, and the
+din and turmoil of their contests are ceaselessly heard? They are founded
+now on questions of mere administration, or on the more ephemeral
+questions of personal merit. Such parties are dangerous only in the
+decline, not in the vigor of Republics. Rome was no longer fit for
+freedom, and needed a Dictator and a Sovereign, when Pompey and Caesar
+divided the citizens. What though the magnanimity of Adams was not
+appreciated, and his contemporaries preferred his military competitor in
+the subsequent election? The sword gathers none but ripe fruits, and the
+masses of any people will sometimes prefer them to the long maturing
+harvest, which the statesmen of the living generations sow, to be reaped
+by their successors. For all this Adams cared not. He had extinguished the
+factions which for forty years had endangered the State. He had left on
+the records of history instructions and an example teaching how faction
+could be overthrown, and his country might resort to them when danger
+should recur. For himself he knew well, none knew better, that
+
+  "He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find
+     The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow.
+   He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
+     Must look down on the hate of those below.
+   Though high above the sun of glory glow,
+     And far beneath the earth and ocean spread,
+   Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow
+     Contending tempests on his naked head,
+  And thus reward the toils which to their summits led."
+
+The federal authority had so long been factiously opposed, that the
+popular respect for its laws needed to be renewed. The State of Georgia
+presented the fit occasion. She insisted on expelling, forcibly, remnants
+of Indian tribes, within her limits, in virtue of a treaty which was
+impeached for fraud, and came for revision before the Supreme Court and
+the Senate. The President met the emergency with boldness and decision.
+The demonstration thus given that good faith should be practised, and the
+law have its way, no matter how unequal the litigating parties, operated
+favorably toward restoring the moral influence of the Government. That
+influence, although sometimes checked, has recently increased in strength,
+until the federal authority is universally regarded as final, and liberty
+again walks confidently hand in hand with law.
+
+John Quincy Adams "loved peace and ensued it." He loved peace as a
+Christian, because war was at enmity with the spirit and precepts of a
+religion which he held to be divine. As a statesman and magistrate, he
+loved peace, because war was not merely injurious to national prosperity,
+but because, whether successful or adverse, it was subversive of liberty.
+Democracies are prone to war, and war consumes them. He favored,
+therefore, all the philanthropic efforts of the age to cultivate the
+spirit of peace, and looked forward with benevolent hope to the ultimate
+institution of a General Congress of nations for the adjustment of their
+controversies. But he was no visionary and no enthusiast. He knew that as
+yet war was often inevitable--that pusillanimity provoked it, and that
+national honor was national property of the highest value; because it was
+the best national defence. He admitted only defensive war--but he did not
+narrowly define it. He held that to be a defensive war, which was waged to
+sustain what could not be surrendered or relinquished without compromising
+the independence, the just influence, or even the proper dignity of the
+State. Thus he had supported the war with Great Britain--thus in later
+years he sustained President Jackson in his bold demonstration against
+France, when that power wantonly refused to perform the stipulations it
+had made in a treaty of indemnity; and thus he yielded his support to what
+was thought a warlike measure of the present administration in the
+diplomatic controversy with Great Britain concerning the Territory of
+Oregon. The living and the dead have mutual rights, and therefore it must
+be added that he considered the present war with Mexico as unnecessary,
+unjust, and criminal. His opinion on this exciting question is among those
+on which he referred himself to that future age which he so often
+constituted the umpire between himself and his contemporaries.
+
+With such principles on the subject of war, he regarded the establishment
+of a system of national defence as a necessary policy for consolidating
+the Republic. He prosecuted, therefore, on a large scale, the work of
+fortification, and defended against popular opposition the institution for
+the cultivation of military science, which has so recently vindicated that
+early favor through the learning, valor, patriotism and humanity exhibited
+by its pupils on the fields of Mexico. But with that jealousy of the
+military spirit which never forsakes the wise republican statesman, he
+cooperated in reducing the army to the lowest scale commensurate with its
+necessary efficiency:
+
+It was a vain and dangerous delusion (he said) to believe that in the
+present or any probable condition of the world, a commerce so extensive as
+ours could exist without the continual support of a military marine--the
+only arm by which the power of a confederacy could be estimated or felt by
+foreign nations, and the only standing force which could never be
+dangerous to our own liberties.
+
+The enlargement of our navy, under the influence of these opinions, is
+among the measures of national consolidation we owe to him; and the
+institution for naval education we enjoy, is a recent result of his early
+suggestions.
+
+But John Quincy Adams relied for national security and peace mainly on an
+enlightened and broad system of civil policy. He looked through the future
+combinations of States, and studied the accidents to which they were
+exposed, that he might seasonably remove causes of future conflict. His
+genius, when exercised in this lofty duty, played in its native element.
+He had cordially approved the measures by which Washington had secured the
+free navigation of the Mississippi. He approved the acquisition of
+Louisiana, although with Jefferson he insisted on a preliminary amendment
+of the constitution for that purpose. He had no narrow bigotry, concerning
+the soil to which the institutions of our fathers should be confined, and
+no local prejudice against their extension in any direction required by
+the public security, if the extension should be made with justice, honor,
+and humanity.
+
+The acquisition of Louisiana had only given us additional territory,
+fruitful in new commerce, to be exposed to dangers which remain to be
+overcome. Spain still possessed, beside the Island of Cuba, the Peninsula
+of the Floridas, and thus held the keys of the Mississippi. The real
+independence, the commercial and the moral independence, of the United
+States, remained to be effected at the close of the European wars, and of
+our own war with England. Our political independence had been confirmed,
+and that was all. John Quincy Adams addressed himself, as Secretary of
+State, to the subversion of what remained of the colonial system. He
+commenced by an auspicious purchase of the Floridas, which gave us
+important maritime advantages on the Gulf of Mexico, while it continued
+our Atlantic sea-board unbroken from the Bay of Fundy to the Sabine.
+
+The ever-advancing American Revolution was at the same time opening the
+way to complete disinthralment. The Spanish-American Provinces revolted,
+and seven new Republics, with constitutions not widely differing from our
+own--Buenos Ayres, Guatamala, Colombia, Mexico, Chili, Central America,
+and Peru--suddenly claimed audience and admission among the nations of the
+earth. The people of those countries were but doubtfully prepared to
+maintain their contest for independence, or to support republican
+institutions. But on the other side Spain was enervated and declining. She
+applied to the Holy League of Europe for their aid, and the new Republics
+applied to the United States for that recognition which could not fail to
+impart strength. The question was momentous. The ancient colonial system
+was at stake. All Europe was interested in maintaining it. The Holy League
+held Europe fast bound to the rock of despotism, and were at liberty to
+engage the United States in a war for the subversion of their
+independence, if they should dare to extend their aid or protection to the
+rebellious Colonies in South America.
+
+Such a war would be a war of the two continents--an universal war. Who
+could foretell its termination, or its dread results? But the emancipation
+of Spanish America was necessary for our own larger freedom, and our own
+complete security. That freedom and that security required that the
+nations of Europe should relax their grasp on the American Continent. The
+question was long and anxiously debated. The American people hesitated to
+hazard, for speculative advantages, the measures of independence already
+obtained. Monroe and Adams waited calmly and firmly. The impassioned voice
+of Henry Clay rose from the Chamber of Representatives. It rang through
+the continent like the notes of the clarion, inspiring South America with
+new resolution, and North America with the confidence the critical
+occasion demanded.  That noble appeal was answered. South America stood
+firm, and North America was ready. Then it was that John Quincy Adams,
+with those generous impulses which the impatient blood of his
+revolutionary sire always prompted, and with that enlightened sagacity
+which never misapprehended the interests of his country, nor mistook the
+time nor the means to secure them, obtained from the administration and
+from Congress the acknowledgment of the independence of the young American
+nations. To give decisive effect to this great measure, Monroe, in 1823,
+solemnly declared to the world, that thenceforth any attempt by any
+foreign power to establish the colonial system in any part of this
+continent, already emancipated, would be resisted as an aggression against
+the independence of the United States. On the accession of Adams to the
+administration of the Government, the vast American continental
+possessions of Brazil separated themselves from the crown of Portugal and
+became an independent State. Adams improved these propitious and sublime
+events by negotiating treaties of reciprocal trade with the youthful
+nations; and, concurring with Monroe, accepted, in behalf of the United
+States, their invitation to a General Congress of American States to be
+held at Panama, to cement relations of amity among themselves, and to
+consider, if it should become necessary, the proper means to repel the
+apprehended interference of the Holy League of Europe.
+
+The last measure transcended the confidence of a large and respectable
+portion of the American people. But its moral effect was needed to secure
+the stability of the South American Republics. Adams persevered, and, in
+defending his course, gave notice to the powers of Europe, by this bold
+declaration, that the determination of the United States was inflexible:--
+
+"If it be asked, whether this meeting, and the principles which may be
+adjusted and settled by it, as rules of intercourse between American
+nations, may not give umbrage to European powers, or offence to Spain, it
+is deemed a sufficient answer, that our attendance at Panama can give no
+just cause of umbrage or offence to either, and that the United States
+will stipulate nothing there, which can give such cause. Here the right of
+inquiry into our purposes and measures must stop. The Holy League of
+Europe, itself, was formed without inquiring of the United States, whether
+it would or would not give umbrage to them. The fear of giving umbrage to
+the Holy League of Europe was urged as a motive for denying to the
+American nations the acknowledgment of their independence. The Congress
+and the administration of that day consulted their rights and their
+duties, not their fears. The United States must still, as heretofore, take
+counsel from their duties, rather than their fears."
+
+Contrast, fellow-citizens, this declaration of John Quincy Adams,
+President of the United States in 1825, with the proclamation of
+neutrality, between the belligerents of Europe, made by Washington in
+1793, with the querrulous complaints of your Ministers against the French
+Directory and the British Ministry at the close of the last century, and
+with the acts of embargo and non-intercourse at the beginning of the
+present century, destroying our own commerce to conquer forbearance from
+the intolerant European powers. Learn from this contrast, the epoch of the
+consolidation of the Republic. Thus instructed, do honor to the statesman
+and magistrate by whom, not forgetting the meed due to his illustrious
+compeers, the colonial system was overthrown throughout Spanish America,
+and the independence of the United States was completely and finally
+consummated.
+
+The intrepid and unwearied statesman now directed his attention to the
+remnants of the colonial system still preserved in the Canadas and West
+Indies. Great Britain, by parliamentary measures, had undermined our
+manufactures, and, receiving only our raw materials, repaid us with
+fabrics manufactured from them, while she excluded us altogether from the
+carrying trade with her colonial possessions. John Quincy Adams sought to
+counteract this injurious legislation, by a revenue system, which should
+restore the manufacturing industry of the country, while he offered
+reciprocal trade as a compromise. His administration ended during a
+beneficial trial of this vigorous policy. But it taxed too severely the
+patriotism of some of the States, and was relinquished by his successors.
+
+Indolence begets degeneracy, and immobility is the first stage of
+dissolution. John Quincy Adams sought not merely to consolidate the
+Republic, but to perpetuate it. For this purpose he bent vast efforts,
+with success, to such a policy of internal improvement as would increase
+the facilities of communication and intercourse between the States, and
+bring into being that great internal trade which must ever constitute the
+strongest bond of federal union. Wherever a lighthouse has been erected,
+on our sea-coast, on our lakes, or on our rivers--wherever a mole or pier
+has been constructed or begun--wherever a channel obstructed by shoals or
+sawyers has been opened, or begun to be opened--wherever a canal or
+railroad, adapted to national uses, has been made or projected--there the
+engineers of the United States, during the administration of John Quincy
+Adams, made explorations, and opened the way for a diligent prosecution of
+his designs by his successors. This policy, apparently so stupendous, was
+connected with a system of fiscal economy so rigorous, that the treasury
+augmented its stores, while the work of improvement went on; the public
+debt, contracted in past wars, dissolved away, and the nation flourished
+in unexampled prosperity. John Quincy Adams administered the Federal
+Government, while De Witt Clinton was presiding in the State of New York.
+It is refreshing to recall the noble emulation of these illustrious
+benefactors--an emulation that shows how inseparable sound philosophy is
+from true patriotism.
+
+If [said Adams, in his first annual message to the Congress of the United
+States,] the powers enumerated may be effectually brought into action by
+laws promoting the improvement of agriculture, commerce and manufactures,
+the cultivation and encouragement of the mechanic arts, and of the elegant
+arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences,
+ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercising them for the benefit
+of the people would be to hide in the earth the talent committed to our
+charge, would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts. The spirit of
+improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the hearts, and
+sharpens the faculties, not of our fellow-citizens alone, but of the
+nations of Europe, and of their rulers. While dwelling with pleasing
+satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political institutions,
+let us not be unmindful that liberty is power, that the nation blessed
+with the largest portion of liberty, must in proportion to its numbers be
+the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by man
+is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be
+exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself, and
+his fellow men. While foreign nations, less blessed with that freedom
+which is power than ourselves, are advancing with gigantic strides in the
+career of public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence, or fold our
+arms and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our
+constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence and
+doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the course of the year now
+drawing to its close, we have beheld, under the auspices, and at the
+expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding its portals
+to the sons of science, and holding up the torch of human improvement to
+eyes that seek the light.[Footnote: The University of Virginia.] We have
+seen, under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State,
+the waters of our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If
+undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass of a few
+years, by the authority of single members of our confederacy, can we, the
+representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow
+servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of
+our common sovereign, by the accomplishment of works important to the
+whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of anyone State
+can be adequate?
+
+The disastrous career of many of the States, and the absolute inaction of
+others, since the responsibilities of internal improvement have been cast
+off by the federal authorities, and developed upon the States, without
+other sources of revenue than direct taxation, and with no other motives
+to stimulate them than their own local interests, are a fitting commentary
+on the error of that departure from the policy of John Quincy Adams. If
+other comment were necessary, it would be found in the fact that States
+have revised and amended their constitutions, so as to abridge the power
+of their Legislatures to prosecute the beneficent enterprises which the
+Federal Government has devolved upon them. The Smithsonian Institute, at
+the seat of Government, founded by the liberality of a cosmopolite, is
+that same university so earnestly recommended by Adams for the increase
+and diffusion of knowledge among men. The exploration of the globe, for
+purposes of geographical and political knowledge, which has so recently
+been made under the authority of the Union, and with such noble results,
+was an enterprize conceived and suggested by the same statesman. The
+National Observatory at the capital, which is piercing the regions nearest
+to the throne of the eternal Author of the universe, is an emanation of
+the same comprehensive wisdom.
+
+Such was the administration of John Quincy Adams. Surely it exhibits
+enough done for duty and for fame--if the ancient philosopher said truly,
+that the duty of a statesman was to make the citizens happy, to make them
+firm in power, rich in wealth, splendid in glory, and eminent in virtue,
+and that such achievements were the greatest and best of all works among
+men.
+
+But the measure of duty was not yet fulfilled. The Republic thought it no
+longer had need of the services of Adams, and he bowed to its command. Two
+years elapsed, and lo! the priest was seen again beside the deserted
+altar, and a brighter, purer, and more lasting flame arose out of the
+extinguished embers.
+
+  "He looked in years. But in his years were seen
+   A youthful vigor, an autumnal green."
+
+The Republic had been extended and consolidated; but human slavery, which
+had been incorporated in it, was extended and consolidated also, and was
+spreading, so as to impair the strength of the great fabric on which the
+hopes of the nations were suspended. Slavery therefore must be restrained,
+and, without violence or injustice, must be abolished. The difficult task
+of removing it had been postponed by the statesmen of the Revolution, and
+had been delayed and forgotten by their successors. There were now
+resolute hearts and willing hands to undertake it, but who was strong
+enough, and bold enough to lead? Who had patience to bear with enthusiasm
+that overleaped its mark, and with intolerance that defeated its own
+generous purposes? Slaveholders had power, nay, the national power; and
+strange to say, they had it with the nation's consent and sympathy. Who
+was bold enough to provoke them, and bring the execration of the nation
+down upon his own head? Who would do this, when even abolitionists
+themselves, rendered implacable by the manifestation of those sentiments
+of justice and moderation, without which the most humane cause, depending
+on a change of public opinion, cannot be conducted safely to a prosperous
+end, were ready to betray their own champion into the hands of the
+avenger? That leader was found in the person of John Quincy Adams. He took
+his seat in the House of Representatives in 1831, without assumption or
+ostentation. Abolitionists placed in his hand petitions for the
+suppression of slavery in the District of Columbia, the seat of the
+federal authorities. He offered them to the House of Representatives, and
+they were rejected with contumely and scorn. Suddenly the alarm went
+forth, that the aged and venerable servant was retaliating upon his
+country by instigating a servile war, that such a war must be avoided,
+eyen at the cost of sacrificing the freedom of petition and the freedom of
+debate, and that if the free States would not consent to make that
+sacrifice, then the Union should be dissolved. This alarm had its desired
+effect. The House of Representatives, in 1837, adopted a rule of
+discipline, equivalent to an act, ordaining that no petition relating to
+slavery, nearly or remotely, should be read, debated or considered. The
+Senate adopted a like edict. The State authorities approved. Slavery was
+not less strongly entrenched behind the bulwark of precedents in the
+courts of law than in the fixed habits of thought and action among the
+people. The people even in the free States denounced the discussion of
+slavery, and suppressed it by unlawful force. John Quincy Adams stood
+unmoved amid the storm. He knew that the only danger incident to political
+reform, was the danger of delaying it too long. The French Revolution had
+made this an axiom of political science. If, indeed, the discussion of
+slavery was so hazardous as was pretended, it had been deferred too long
+already. The advocates of slavery had committed a fatal error. They had
+abolished freedom of speech and freedom of petition to save an obnoxious
+institution. As soon as the panic should subside, the people would demand
+the restoration of those precious rights, and would scrutinize with
+fearless fidelity the cause for which they had been suppressed. He offered
+petition after petition, each bolder and more importunate than the last.
+He debated questions, kindred to those which were forbidden, with the
+firmness and fervor of his noble nature. For age
+
+  Had not quenched the open truth
+  And fiery vehemence of youth.
+
+Soon he gained upon his adversaries. District after district sent
+champions to his side. States reconsidered, and resolved in his behalf. He
+saw the tide was turning, and then struck one bold blow, not now for
+freedom of petition and debate, but a stroke of bold and retaliating
+warfare. He offered a resolution declaring that the following amendments
+of the constitution of the United States be submitted to the people of the
+several States for their adoption:
+
+From and after the fourth day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout
+the United States, NO HEREDITARY SLAVERY, but on and after that day every
+child born within the United States shall be FREE.
+
+With the exception of the Territory of Florida, there shall, henceforth,
+never be admitted into this Union, any STATE the constitution of which
+shall tolerate within the same the existence of SLAVERY.
+
+In 1845, the obnoxious rule of the House of Representatives was rescinded.
+The freedom of debate and petition was restored, and the unrestrained and
+irrepressible discussion of slavery by the press and political parties
+began. For the rest, the work of emancipation abides the action, whether
+it be slow or fast, of the moral sense of the American people. It depends
+not on the zeal and firmness only of the reformers, but on their wisdom
+and moderation also. Stoicism, that had no charity for error, never
+converted any human society to virtue; Christianity, that remembers the
+true nature of man, has encompassed a large portion of the globe. How long
+emancipation may be delayed, is among the things concealed from our
+knowledge, but not so the certain result. The perils of the enterprize
+are already passed--its difficulties have already been removed--when it
+shall have been accomplished it will be justly regarded as the last noble
+effort which rendered the Republic imperishable.
+
+Then the merit of the great achievement will be awarded to John Quincy
+Adams; and by none more gratefully than by the communities on whom the
+institution of slavery has brought the calamity of premature and
+consumptive decline, in the midst of free, vigorous, and expanding States.
+
+If this great transaction could be surpassed in dramatic sublimity, it was
+surpassed when the same impassioned advocate of humanity appeared, at the
+age of seventy-four, with all the glorious associations that now clustered
+upon him, at the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, and
+pleaded, without solicitation or reward, the cause of Cinque and thirty
+other Africans, who had been stolen by a Spanish slaver from their native
+coast, had slain the master and crew of the pirate vessel, floated into
+the waters of the United States, and there been claimed by the President,
+in behalf of the authorities of Spain. He pleaded this great cause with
+such happy effect, that the captives were set at liberty. Conveyed by the
+charity of the humane to their native shores, they bore the pleasing
+intelligence to Africa, that justice was at last claiming its way among
+civilized and Christian men!
+
+The recital of heroic actions loses its chief value, if we cannot discover
+the principles in which they were born. The text of John Quincy Adams,
+from which he deduced the duties of citizens, and of the republic, was the
+address of the Continental Congress to the people of the United States, on
+the occasion of the successful close of the American Revolution. He dwelt
+often and emphatically on the words:
+
+Let it be remembered, that it has ever been the pride and the boast of
+America, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human
+nature. By the blessing of the Author of those rights, they have prevailed
+over all opposition, and form the basis of thirteen independent States. No
+instance has heretofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected
+hereafter to occur, in which the unadulterated forms of republican
+government can pretend to so fair an opportunity of justifying themselves
+by their fruits. In this view, the citizens of the United States are
+responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society.
+If JUSTICE, GOOD FAITH, HONOR, GRATITUDE, and all the other qualities
+which ennoble the character of a nation and fulfil the ends of government,
+be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of liberty will acquire a
+dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be
+set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on mankind. If, on
+the other side, our Governments should be unfortunately blotted with the
+reverse of these cardinal virtues, the great cause which we have engaged
+to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed; the last and fairest
+experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against
+them, and their patrons and friends exposed to the insults, and silenced
+by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation.
+
+Senators and Representatives of the People of the State of New York: I had
+turned my steps away from your honored halls, long since, as I thought
+forever. I come back to them by your command, to fulfil a higher duty and
+more honorable service than ever before devolved upon me. I repay your
+generous confidence, by offering to you this exposition of the duties of
+the magistrate and of the citizen. It is the same which John Quincy Adams
+gave to the Congress of the United States, in his oration on the death of
+James Madison. It is the key to his own exalted character, and it enables
+us to measure the benefits he conferred upon his country. If then you ask
+what motive enabled him to rise above parties, sects, combinations,
+prejudices, passions, and seductions, I answer that he served his country,
+not alone, or chiefly because that country was his own, but because he
+knew her duties and her destiny, and knew her cause was the cause of human
+nature.
+
+If you inquire why he was so rigorous in virtue as to be often thought
+austere, I answer it was because human nature required the exercise of
+justice, honor, and gratitude, by all who were clothed with authority to
+act in the name of the American people. If you ask why he seemed,
+sometimes, with apparent inconsistency, to lend his charities to the
+distant and the future rather than to his own kindred and times, I reply,
+it was because he held that the tenure of human power is on condition of
+its being beneficently exercised for the common welfare of the human race.
+Such men are of no country. They belong to mankind. If we cannot rise to
+this height of virtue, we cannot hope to comprehend the character of John
+Quincy Adams, or understand the homage paid by the American people to his
+memory.
+
+Need it be said that John Quincy Adams studied justice, honor and
+gratitude, not by the false standards of the age, but by their own true
+nature?  He generalized truth, and traced it always to its source, the
+bosom of God. Thus in his defence of the Amistad captives he began with
+defining justice in the language of Justinian, "Constans et perpetua
+voluntas jus SUUM cuique tribuendi." He quoted on the same occasion from
+the Declaration of Independence, not by way of rhetorical embellishment,
+and not even as a valid human ordinance, but as a truth of nature, of
+universal application, the memorable words, "We hold these truths to be
+self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by
+their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these rights
+are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In his vindication of
+the right of debate, he declared that the principle that religious
+opinions were altogether beyond the sphere of legislative control, was but
+one modification of a more extensive axiom, which included the unbounded
+freedom of the press, and of speech, and of the communication of thought
+in all its forms. He rested the inviolability of the right of petition,
+not on constitutions, or charters, which might be glossed, abrogated or
+expunged, but in the inherent right of every animate creature to pray to
+its superior.
+
+The model by which he formed his character was Cicero. Not the living
+Cicero, sometimes inconsistent; often irresolute; too often seeming to act
+a studied part; and always covetous of applause. But Cicero, as he aimed
+to be, and as he appears revealed in those immortal emanations of his
+genius which have been the delight and guide of intellect and virtue in
+every succeeding age. Like the Roman, Adams was an orator, but he did not
+fall into the error of the Roman, in practically valuing eloquence more
+than the beneficence to which it should be devoted. Like him he was a
+statesman and magistrate worthy to be called "The second founder of the
+Republic,"--like him a teacher of didactic philosophy, of morals, and even
+of his own peculiar art; and like him he made all liberal learning
+tributary to that noble art, while poetry was the inseparable companion of
+his genius in its hours of relaxation from the labors of the forum and of
+the capitol.
+
+Like him he loved only the society of good men, and by his generous praise
+of such, illustrated the Roman's beautiful aphorism, that no one can be
+envious of good deeds, who has confidence in his own virtue. Like Cicero
+he kept himself unstained by social or domestic vices; preserved serenity
+and cheerfulness; cherished habitual reverence for the Deity, and dwelt
+continually, not on the mystic theology of the schools, but on the hopes
+of a better life. He lived in what will be regarded as the virtuous age of
+his country, while Cicero was surrounded by an overwhelming degeneracy. He
+had the light of Christianity for his guide; and its sublime motives as
+incitements to virtue: while Cicero had only the confused instructions of
+the Grecian schools, and saw nothing certainly attainable but present
+applause and future fame. In moral courage, therefore, he excelled his
+model and rivalled Cato. But Cato was a visionary, who insisted upon
+his right to act always without reference to the condition of mankind, as
+he should have acted in Plato's imaginary Republic. Adams stood in this
+respect midway between the impracticable stoic and the too flexible
+academician. He had no occasion to say, as the Grecian orator did, that if
+he had sometimes acted contrary to himself, he had never acted contrary to
+the Republic; but he might justly have said, as the noble Roman did, "I
+have rendered to my country all the great services which she was willing
+to receive at my hands, and I have never harbored a thought concerning her
+that was not divine."
+
+More fortunate than Cicero, who fell a victim of civil wars which he could
+not avert, Adams was permitted to linger on the earth, until the
+generations of that future age, for whom he had lived and to whom he had
+appealed from the condemnation of contemporaries, came up before the
+curtain which had shut out his sight, and pronounced over him, as he was
+sinking into the grave, their judgment of approval and benediction.
+
+The distinguished characteristics of his life were BENEFICENT LABOR and
+PERSONAL CONTENTMENT. He never sought wealth, but devoted himself to the
+service of mankind. Yet, by the practice of frugality and method, he
+secured the enjoyment of dealing forth continually no stinted charities,
+and died in affluence. He never solicited place or preferment, and had no
+partizan combinations or even connections; yet he received honors which
+eluded the covetous grasp of those who formed parties, rewarded friends
+and proscribed enemies; and he filled a longer period of varied and
+distinguished service than ever fell to the lot of any other citizen. In
+every stage of this progress he was CONTENT. He was content to be
+president, minister, representative, or citizen.
+
+Stricken in the midst of this service, in the very act of rising to
+debate, he fell into the arms of conscript fathers of the Republic. A long
+lethargy supervened and oppressed his senses. Nature rallied the wasting
+powers, on the verge of the grave, for a very brief period. But it was
+long enough for him. The rekindled eye showed that the re-collected mind
+was clear, calm, and vigorous. His weeping family, and his sorrowing
+compeers were there. He surveyed the scene and knew at once its fatal
+import. He had left no duty unperformed; he had no wish unsatisfied; no
+ambition unattained; no regret, no sorrow, no fear, no remorse. He could
+not shake off the dews of death that gathered on his brow. He could not
+pierce the thick shades that rose up before him. But he knew that eternity
+lay close by the shores of time. He knew that his Redeemer lived.
+Eloquence, even in that hour, inspired him with his ancient sublimity of
+utterance. "THIS," said the dying man. "THIS IS THE END OF EARTH." He
+paused for a moment, and then added, "I AM CONTENT." Angels might well
+draw aside the curtains of the skies to look down on such a scene--a scene
+that approximated even to that scene of unapproachable sublimity, not to
+be recalled without reverence, when, in mortal agony, ONE who spake as
+never man spake, said, "IT IS FINISHED!"
+
+Only two years after the birth of John Quincy Adams, there appeared on an
+island in the Mediterranean sea, a human spirit newly born, endowed with
+equal genius, without the regulating qualities of justice and benevolence
+which Adams possessed in an eminent degree. A like career opened to
+both--born like Adams, a subject of a king--the child of more genial
+skies, like him, became in early life a patriot and a citizen of a new and
+great Republic. Like Adams he lent his service to the State in precocious
+youth, and in its hour of need, and won its confidence. But unlike Adams
+he could not wait the dull delays of slow and laborious, but sure
+advancement. He sought power by the hasty road that leads through fields
+of carnage, and he became, like Adams, a supreme magistrate, a Consul. But
+there were other Consuls. He was not content. He thrust them aside, and
+was Consul alone. Consular power was too short. He fought new battles, and
+was Consul for life. But power, confessedly derived from the people, must
+be exercised in obedience to their will, and must be resigned to them
+again, at least in death. He was not content. He desolated Europe afresh,
+subverted the Republic, imprisoned the patriarch who presided over Rome's
+comprehensive See, and obliged him to pour on his head the sacred oil that
+made the persons of kings divine, and their right to reign indefeasible.
+He was an Emperor. But he saw around him a mother, brothers and sisters,
+not ennobled; whose humble state reminded him, and the world, that he was
+born a plebeian; and he had no heir to wait impatient for the imperial
+crown. He scourged the earth again, and again fortune smiled on him even
+in his wild extravagance. He bestowed kingdoms and principalities upon his
+kindred--put away the devoted wife of his youthful days, and another, a
+daughter of Hapsburgh's imperial house, joyfully accepted his proud
+alliance. Offspring gladdened his anxious sight; a diadem was placed on
+its infant brow, and it received the homage of princes, even in its
+cradle. Now he was indeed a monarch--a legitimate monarch--a monarch by
+divine appointment--the first of an endless succession of monarchs. But
+there were other monarchs who held sway in the earth. He was not content.
+He would reign with his kindred alone. He gathered new and greater
+armies--from his own land--from subjugated lands. He called forth the
+young and brave--one from every household--from the Pyrenees to Zuyder
+Zee--from Jura to the ocean. He marshalled them into long and majestic
+columns, and went forth to seize that universal dominion, which seemed
+almost within his grasp. But ambition had tempted fortune too far. The
+nations of the earth resisted, repelled, pursued, surrounded him. The
+pageant was ended. The crown fell from his presumptuous head.  The wife
+who had wedded him in his pride, forsook him when the hour of fear came
+upon him. His child was ravished from his sight. His kinsmen were degraded
+to their first estate, and he was no longer Emperor, nor Consul, nor
+General, nor even a citizen, but an exile and a prisoner, on a lonely
+island, in the midst of the wild Atlantic. Discontent attended him there.
+The wayward man fretted out a few long years of his yet unbroken manhood,
+looking off at the earliest dawn and in evening's latest twilight, towards
+that distant world that had only just eluded his grasp. His heart
+corroded. Death came, not unlooked for, though it came even then
+unwelcome. He was stretched on his bed within the fort which constituted
+his prison. A few fast and faithful friends stood around, with the guards
+who rejoiced that the hour of relief from long and wearisome watching was
+at hand. As his strength wasted away, delirium stirred up the brain from
+its long and inglorious inactivity. The pageant of ambition returned. He
+was again a Lieutenant, a General, a Consul, an Emperor of France. He
+filled again the throne of Charlemagne. His kindred pressed around him
+again, re-invested with the pompous pageantry of royalty. The daughter of
+the long line of kings again stood proudly by his side, and the sunny face
+of his child shone out from beneath the diadem that encircled its flowing
+locks. The marshals of the Empire awaited his command. The legions of the
+old guard were in the field, their scarred faces rejuvenated, and their
+ranks, thinned in many battles, replenished, Russia, Prussia, Austria,
+Denmark and England, gathered their mighty hosts to give him battle. Once
+more he mounted his impatient charger, and rushed forth to conquest. He
+waved his sword aloft, and cried "TETE D'ARMEE." The feverish vision
+broke--the mockery was ended. The silver cord was loosed, and the warrior
+fell back upon his bed a lifeless corpse. THIS WAS THE END OF EARTH. THE
+CORSICAN WAS NOT CONTENT.
+
+STATESMEN AND CITIZENS! the contrast suggests its own impressive moral.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life and Public Services of John
+Quincy Adams, by William H. Seward
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